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THEOSOPHY  AND 
NEW  THOUGHT 

12 

BY/ 

HENRY  C.  SHELDON 

Professor  in  Boston  University 


THE  ABINGDON  PRESS 
NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI 


Copyright,  1916,  by 
HENRY  C.  SHELDON 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTEB  PAQH 

Preface 7 

PART  I— Theosophy 

I.  Historical  Outlines 11 

II.  Appraisement  of  Theosophy  by 

Theosophists 20 

III.  The  Attitude  Assumed  Toward 

Competing  Faiths 24 

IV.  The  Basis  of  Authority 38 

V.  The  Doctrine  of  God 47 

VI.    COSMOLOGICAL  THEORIES 56 

VII.  Conceptions   of    Man   and   His 

Destiny 70 

VIII.  The    Theosophic    Principle    of 

Authority  Tested 89 

IX.  Comments    on    Prominent    Fea- 
tures    OF     THE     THEOSOPHICAL 

System Ill 

PART  II— New  Thought 

I.  General  Sketch 129 

II.  The  Doctrine  of  Man 143 

III.  The  Conception  of  God  and  of 

Man's  Relation  to  Him 152 

IV.  The  Therapeutic  Scheme 164 

V.  Some  Grounds  of  Criticism 171 


PREFACE 

The  double  title  given  to  the  book 
is  not  meant  to  imply  that  Theosophy 
and  New  Thought  are  approximately 
identical.  The  inclusion  of  the  two 
in  a  single  volume  is  rather  a  matter 
of  convenience  than  of  logical  clas- 
sification. We  recognize  that,  while 
they  have  distinct  points  of  similar- 
ity, they  also  exhibit  quite  apparent 
contrasts  in  spirit  and  content.  In 
particular  the  intemperate  speculation 
and  headlong  Orientalism  of  Theosophy 
are  but  partially  reflected  in  New 
Thought.  Both,  however,  make  very 
high  claims,  and  this  fact  justifies  the 
subjecting  of  them  to  close  scrutiny. 


PART  I 
THEOSOPHY 


CHAPTER  I 

HISTORICAL  OUTLINES 

The   type   of   Theosophy  which   is 

here  examined  is  of  very  recent  date. 

Whatever  may  be  the  age  of  some  of 

its   ingredients,   it   first   began   to   be 

compounded  in  1875.     In  the  fall  of 

that    year   the    Theosophical    Society 

was  started  in  New  York  city.     The 

most  efficient  agent  in  its  origination 

was  a  Russian  woman  whose  maiden 

name  was  Helena  Petrovna  Hahn,  but 

who — from  the  name  of  N.  B.  Blavat- 

sky,  her  first  and  only  legal  husband 

whom  she  left  after  a  three  months' 

trial — is  known  as  Madame  Blavatsky. 

Closely  associated  with  her,  and  her 

constant  coadjutor  till  her  death,  was 

H.  S.  Olcott,  commonly  mentioned  by 

the  title  of  Colonel,  which  he  gained 

in  the  Civil  War.    W.  Q.  Judge,  who, 
11 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

after  Olcott,  became  one  of  the  most 
conspicuous  among  American  repre- 
sentatives of  Theosophy,  was  also  con- 
nected with  the  Society  from  the  first. 
The  earlier  life  of  Madame  Blavatsky 
lies  partly  in  the  mist.  The  ascer- 
tained facts  are  that  she  was  mar- 
ried in  1848,  at  the  age  of  seventeen; 
that  after  deserting  her  husband  she 
led  a  wandering  life  for  twenty-five 
years,  being  found  at  intervals  in 
Paris,  London,  Russia,  Greece,  Egypt, 
the  United  States,  Mexico,  and  India. 
For  at  least  a  considerable  part  of 
this  period  she  was  interested  in  occult- 
ism, and  it  is  probable  that  in  her 
Eastern  travels  she  came  into  sufficient 
contact  with  professional  magicians  to 
learn  somewhat  of  their  art.  From 
the  testimony  of  members  of  her  own 
family  it  is  known  that  even  in  child- 
hood she  was  characterized  by  pecu- 
liar psychic  gifts,  or  abilities  to  figure 
as    a    "medium,"    and   there   is   clear 

evidence   that   as   early   as    1858   she 
12 


HISTORICAL  OUTLINES 

became  distinctly  affiliated  with  Spir- 
itualism.1 Thirteen  years  later  (1871) 
she  attempted  to  found  "a  sort  of 
spiritual  society  at  Cairo,  upon  a  basis 
of  phenomena/ '  This  proved  to  be  a 
"lamentable  fiasco,"2  but  her  interest 
in  Spiritualism  was  not  dampened  by 
the  miserable  outcome,  and  on  her 
arrival  at  New  York  in  1873  she 
sought  cooperation  with  the  mediums 
whose  reputed  marvels  at  that  time 
were  attracting  much  attention.  The 
connection  was  brief,  since  exposure  of 
fraudulent  proceedings  greatly  abridged 
public  interest  in  spiritualistic  per- 
formances. It  was  thought  best  to 
try  a  new  scheme.  And  so  resort 
was  made  to  Theosophy  as  being  at 
once  less  exposed  to  hostile  judgment, 
and  furnishing  abundant  means  for 
gratifying  an  appetite  for  occultism. 
The  result  was  the  founding  of  the 
Theosophical    Society.      As    was    ob- 

1  Letter  of  Madame  Blavateky  cited  by  Olcott  in  The  Theos- 
ophist,  August,  1892. 

2  Olcott,  Old  Diary  Leaves,  pp.  22,  23. 

13 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

served,    this    took    place    in    the    fall 
of  1875. 

For  the  next  two  years  Madame 
Blavatsky's  energies  were  mainly  de- 
voted to  the  writing  of  the  first  nota- 
ble manifesto  of  modern  Theosophy, 
the  work  in  two  ponderous  volumes 
entitled  Isis  Unveiled.  Near  the  close 
of  1878  she  went  with  Olcott  to  India. 
Here  an  appreciable  success  was  won. 
The  attempt  to  amalgamate  the 
Theosophical  Society  with  the  Arya 
Samaj  miscarried,  it  is  true,  but  the 
flattering  tributes  paid  to  Hindu  phi- 
losophy and  religion,  aided  by  the  im- 
pression made  by  the  reputed  marvels, 
especially  at  the  headquarters  in  Adyar, 
secured  the  adhesion  of  a  considerable 
number  of  the  natives,  as  also  of 
several  European  residents.  A  check 
to  propagandism  occurred  in  1884-85 
by  reason  of  the  publication,  first  in 
the  Madras  Christian  College  Magazine 
and  then  in  the  Proceedings  of  the 
Society  for  Psychical  Research,  of  evi- 

14 


HISTORICAL  OUTLINES 

dences  of  fraud  in  the  alleged  marvels 
at  Adyar.  The  evidences  were  over- 
whelming; but  the  Theosophical  lead- 
ers met  them  with  denials  and  con- 
tinued to  labor  energetically  for  their 
scheme.  Madame  Blavatsky  began, 
under  the  title  of  "The  Secret  Doc- 
trine/ '  the  work  which  largely  occupied 
her  later  years,  and  which  is  commonly 
ranked  as  the  magnum  opus  of  modern 
Theosophy.  It  is  her  most  elaborate  con- 
tribution to  the  literature  of  her  school, 
though  in  point  of  serviceable  introduc- 
tion to  her  matured  theories  her  Key  to 
Theosophy  might  be  given  precedence. 
The  death  of  Madame  Blavatsky 
occurred  in  1891.  An  estimate  of 
her  character  will  hardly  be  avoidable 
when  we  come  to  consider  the  grounds 
of  authority  claimed  for  the  Theosophi- 
cal system.  In  the  present  connection 
it  will  suffice  to  repeat  the  character- 
ization given  by  one  who  was  con- 
tinuously in  her  company  for  the 
larger  part  of  her  career  as  a  Theos- 

15 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

ophist,  and  who  claimed  to  have  re- 
vised, as  to  form,  nearly  every  page 
of  her  English  writings.  "If  there  ever 
existed  a  person  in  history/ '  writes 
Olcott,  "who  was  a  greater  conglom- 
eration of  good  and  bad,  light  and 
shadow,  wisdom  and  indiscretion,  spir- 
itual insight  and  lack  of  common 
sense,  I  cannot  recall  the  name,  the 
circumstances,  or  the  epoch."3 

At  the  time  when  the  exposure  made 
by  the  report  of  the  Society  for  Psy- 
chical Research  cast  a  cloud  over  the 
prospects  of  the  Theosophical  move- 
ment, it  won  in  the  person  of  Mrs. 
Annie  Besant  an  adherent  whose  gift 
as  public  speaker  and  as  writer  was 
to  serve  as  an  important  asset.  Some 
years  earlier  this  woman  had  left 
home,  husband,  and  infant,  joined  the 
Free  Thought  Society  in  London,  and 
become  an  intense  advocate  of  an 
atheistic  and  socialistic  platform.  By 
an   apparently   sudden   turn   she   ex- 

8  Olcott,  Old  Diary  Leavee,  Foreword,  p.  vii. 
16 


HISTORICAL  OUTLINES 

changed  her  rank  skepticism  for  the 
complex  affirmations  of  Theosophy. 

Shortly  after  the  death  of  Madame 
Blavatsky  a  schism  occurred  in  the 
Theosophical  Society.  Up  to  that 
time  Olcott  had  served  as  president 
and  W.  Q.  Judge  as  vice-president. 
The  conviction  now  entered  the  mind 
of  Judge  that  the  first  place  was  due 
to  him.  Accordingly,  he  went  dil- 
igently to  work,  resorting  among  other 
expedients  to  letters  in  his  interest 
which  purported  to  come  from  the 
Mahatmas  who  were  supposed  to  use 
the  Society  as  the  chosen  mouthpiece 
of  their  superior  wisdom.  Olcott  was 
sufficiently  overawed  to  resign.  But 
he  was  in  possession  of  very  cogent 
evidence  that  Judge  himself  was  the 
author  of  the  Mahatma  letters  which 
favored  his  promotion.  In  the  issue 
he  withdrew  his  resignation  and 
found  opportunity  to  convince  Mrs. 
Besant  that  Judge  had  played  false. 
However,    an   attempt   was   made   to 

17 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

avoid  scandal  and  to  hush  up  the 
matter.  This  was  not  wholly  success- 
ful, and  the  result  was  that  Judge 
broke  away  from  the  party  of  Olcott 
and  Besant,  taking  with  him  a  ma- 
jority of  the  American  Theosophists. 
After  his  death  in  1896  Mrs.  Katherine 
Tingley  was  invested  with  the  pres- 
idency of  the  American  branch,  with 
Point  Loma,  California,  as  the  head- 
quarters. On  the  death  of  Olcott  in 
1907  Mrs.  Besant  took  his  place  as 
president.  The  schism  remained  un- 
healed, and  goes  to  show  that  the 
treasure  of  Theosophy  was  committed 
to  earthen  vessels.  That  the  members 
of  the  Society  were  quite  accessible 
to  mundane  motives  and  tempers  was 
proved  at  an  earlier  point;  for  Madame 
Blavatsky  in  her  day  admitted  that 
there  was  as  much  backbiting,  slan- 
dering, and  quarreling  in  the  Theo- 
sophical  Society,  as  in  the  Christian 
churches,  let  alone  scientific  societies.4 

*  Key  to  Theoaophy,  pp.  250-252. 
18 


HISTORICAL  OUTLINES 

Among  those  who  supported  the 
Theosophical  movement  in  India  a 
prominent  place  was  taken  by  A.  P. 
Sinnett,  and  his  writings  make  a  con- 
siderable factor  in  the  literature  of 
the  movement.  A  later  contributor 
to  that  literature  is  C.  W.  Leadbeater, 
in  recent  years  closely  associated  with 
Mrs.  Besant  at  the  headquarters  in 
Madras,  though  for  a  period  (1905- 
1909)  he  was  constrained  to  disconnect 
himself  from  the  Society  on  the  score 
of  the  charge  of  disseminating  immoral 
teaching  among  boys.  A  defense  of 
this  teaching  by  an  American  Theos- 
ophist,  Van  Hoek,  was  sharply  chal- 
lenged in  England.  On  the  refusal 
of  the  General  Council  to  withdraw  this 
document  "a  body  of  seven  hundred 
British  Theosophists,  including  nearly 
all  the  cultured  and  influential  mem- 
bers in  the  country,  and  a  number 
in  other  lands,  left  the  Society."5 

5  J.  N.  Farquhar,  Modern  Religious  Movements  in  India,  pp.  273, 
274. 

19 


CHAPTER  II 

APPRAISEMENT  OF  THEOSOPHY 
BY  THEOSOPHISTS 

The  terms  in  which  the  leading 
exponents  of  Theosophy  extol  their 
religio-philosophical  scheme  vie  with 
the  emphatic  language  in  which  Mary 
Baker  G.  Eddy  described  her  religio- 
medical  dispensation.  In  one  respect 
a  relative  modesty  characterizes  the 
claims  of  the  former  party.  They  re- 
nounce the  honor  of  originality,  as 
also  of  direct  divine  inspiration.  Their 
teaching,  they  say,  is  identical  with 
a  primitive  Wisdom-Religion,  and  this 
has  been  in  the  world  for  an  immense 
period,  having  been  handed  on  by 
a  line  of  highly  perfected  men,  vari- 
ously designated  as  Mahatmas,  Adepts, 
Initiates,  Masters,  and  the  White 
Brotherhood.  But  while  they  are  con- 
20 


APPRAISEMENT  OF  THEOSOPHY 

tent  to  assume  the  role  of  trans- 
mitters, they  enormously  magnify  their 
vocation,  in  that  they  claim  to  possess 
truth  in  all  its  depth  and  amplitude. 
Let  a  few  statements  illustrate.  "Mod- 
ern science/ '  says  Madame  Blavatsky, 
"is  ancient  thought  distorted  and  no 
more."1  "The  secret  doctrine  of  the 
East  contains  the  Alpha  and  Omega 
of  universal  science."2  "Our  work  is 
a  plea  for  the  recognition  of  the 
Hermetic  philosophy,  the  anciently 
universal  Wisdom-Religion,  as  the  only 
possible  key  to  the  Absolute  in  sci- 
ence and  theology."3  "The  Wisdom- 
Religion  was  ever  one  and  the  same, 
and  being  the  last  word  of  possible 
human  knowledge  was  therefore  care- 
fully preserved.  It  preceded  by  long 
ages  the  Alexandrian  Theosophists, 
reached  the  modern,  and  will  survive 
every  other  religion  and  philosophy."4 

»  The  Secret  Doctrine,  I.  579. 

*  Ibid.,  III.  22. 

*  Isia  Unveiled,  Preface. 

*  Key  to  Theosophy,  p.  9. 

21 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

"Religion,"  writes  Olcott,  "has  but 
one  foundation — Theosophy."5  "Mod- 
ern metaphysics,"  observes  Sinnett, 
"and  to  a  large  extent  modern  physical 
science,  have  been  groping  for  cen- 
turies blindly  after  knowledge  which 
occult  philosophy  has  enjoyed  in  full 
measure  all  the  while."6  "Theosophy 
is  the  essence  of  religion  and  of  all 
religions  worthy  of  the  name."7  "The- 
osophy," asserts  Judge,  "is  that  ocean 
of  knowledge  which  spreads  from  shore 
to  shore  of  the  evolution  of  sentient 
beings.  .  .  .  Embracing  both  the  scien- 
tific and  the  religious,  Theosophy  is  a 
scientific  religion  and  a  religious  sci- 
ence."8 In  short,  the  whole  round 
of  important  truth,  metaphysical, 
religious,  and  scientific,  is  claimed  for 
Theosophy.  It  is  described  as  the  one 
source  of  adequate  guidance,  and,  ac- 
cording   to    Madame    Blavatsky,    its 

*  Theosophy,  Religion,  and  Occult  Science,  p.  39. 
"The  Occult  World,  p.  1. 

7  The  Growth  of  the  Soul,  p.  42. 

8  The  Ocean  of  Theoeopby,  p.  1. 

22 


APPRAISEMENT  OF  THEOSOPHY 

illuminating  rays  did  not  break  through 
the  fog  of  human  systems  any  too 
soon.  "Had  the  formation  of  the 
Theosophical  Society/'  she  affirms, 
"been  postponed  a  few  years  longer, 
one  half  of  the  civilized  nations  would 
have  become  by  this  time  rank  ma- 
terialists, and  the  other  half  anthro- 
pomorphists  and  phenomenalists."9 

9  Key  to  Theosopby,  p.  3G. 


23 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  ATTITUDE  ASSUMED 

TOWARD  COMPETING 

FAITHS 

The  placing  of  Theosophy  upon  such 
a  lofty  plane  and  the  assignment  to 
it  of  such  a  wide  province  were  nat- 
urally accompanied  by  disparaging  ref- 
erences to  rival  systems.  In  this 
adverse  judgment  the  Spiritualism  with 
which  it  was  historically  connected,  and 
out  of  which  in  a  sense  it  emerged, 
was  not  spared.  Madame  Blavatsky 
took  pains  in  her  first  work  to  speak 
of  it  in  slighting  terms.  She  declared 
that  the  materialized  forms  produced 
in  seances  were  not  the  actual  forms 
of  the  persons  with  whom  communica- 
tion was  supposed  to  be  made,  "but 
rather,  their  portrait  statues,  con- 
structed, animated,  and  operated  by 

24 


COMPETING  FAITHS 

the  elementaries."1  She  stated,  further, 
that  the  passivity  which  is  a  condition 
of  effective  mediumship  is  a  source 
of  exposure  to  foreign  and  deleterious 
influences,  as  is  made  plain  by  the 
notorious  fact  that  mediums  are  gen- 
erally either  sickly  or,  what  is  worse, 
inclined  to  some  abnormal  vice.2  In 
her  Key  to  Theosophy  she  taught 
that  the  spirits  of  the  dead  cannot 
return  to  earth  except  in  rare  cases, 
and  that  materializations  and  such  like 
phenomena  are  produced  by  the  astral 
double  of  the  medium  or  of  some  one 
present,  or  by  the  astral  shells  of 
vanished  personalities,  or  by  elemen- 
tals,  never  by  the  conscious  individ- 
uality of  the  disembodied.3  Further 
on  in  the  same  treatise  she  makes 
this  statement:  "Theosophists  accept 
the  phenomena  of  'materialization/  but 
reject  the  theory  that  it  is  produced 


1  Isis  Unveiled,  I.  70. 

1  Ibid.,  I.  490. 

J  Key  to  Theosophy,  pp.  28,  29. 

25 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

by  'spirits';  that  is,  the  immortal 
principles  of  disembodied  persons. 
Theosophists  hold  that  when  the 
phenomena  are  genuine — which  is  a 
fact  of  rarer  occurrence  than  is  gen- 
erally believed — they  are  produced  by 
larvce,  the  eidolons  or  kamalokic 
'ghosts'  of  the  dead  personalities."4 
She  also  records  the  judgment  that 
mediumship  opens  the  door  to  "a 
swarm  of  spooks  good,  bad,  and  in- 
different.' '  "All  this  dealing  with  the 
dead  is  necromancy  and  a  most  dan- 
gerous practice."5  In  line  with  these 
sharp  criticisms,  she  sometimes  speci- 
fied the  putting  down  of  Spiritualism 
as  one  of  the  main  objects  of  Theos- 
ophy.6  Similar  estimates  of  Spiritual- 
ism and  its  phenomena  might  be  cited 
from  other  writers.  But  not  all  ex- 
ponents of  Theosophy  are  given  to 
quite  so  radical  a  disparagement.    Thus 


*  Key  to  Theosophy,  p.  336. 

*  Ibid.,  pp.  188-193. 

e  Letter  written  in  1884  and  cited  by  LiUie,  Madame  Blavateky 
and  hex  Theosophy,  p.  16. 

26 


COMPETING  FAITHS 

W.  J.  Colville  makes  room  for  a 
legitimate  order  of  spiritualistic  trans- 
actions. "Mediumship,"  he  says,  "has 
often  been  an  erratic  manifestation  of 
spiritual  power,  but  in  its  highest 
phases  it  is  strictly  theosophical, 
though  in  its  lowest  it  is  nothing  more 
than  'gray  magic'  "7  The  point  of  view 
contained  in  these  words  would  seem 
to  have  made  some  progress  in  recent 
years.  We  note  that  an  English  ob- 
server makes  bold  to  state,  "There  is 
no  talk  now  about  putting  down  Spirit- 
ualism; in  fact,  the  two  cults  are  at 
present  coquetting  affectionately."8 
Whatever  their  differences  and  incom- 
patibilities, they  have  a  connecting 
bond  in  their  common  appetite  for  oc- 
cult and  strange  phenomena. 

The  vitality  of  its  interest  in  occult- 
ism serves  also  to  give  to  Theosophy 
a  certain  association  with   astrology, 

I     7  Studies  in  Theosophy,  1891,  p.  224.     Compare  E.  C.  Farns- 
worth,  Special  Teachings  from  the  Arcane  Science,  pp.  159,  160. 
8  Maskelyne,  The  Fraud  of  Modern  Theosophy,  second  edition, 
1912,  p.  39. 

27 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

though  the  formal  attitude  assumed 
toward  the  latter  by  the  advocates  of 
the  former  has  not  been  uniform. 
Madame  Blavatsky  was  distinctly  ap- 
preciative. "It  is  now  amply  proved/' 
she  wrote,  "that  horoscopes  and  ju- 
diciary astrology  are  not  quite  based 
on  fiction,  and  that  the  stars  and 
constellations,  consequently,  have  an 
occult  and  mysterious  influence  on, 
and  connection  with,  individuals.  And 
if  with  the  latter,  why  not  with  na- 
tions, races,  and  mankind  in  bulk?"9 
Again  she  remarked:  "Every  student 
of  occultism  knows  that  the  heavenly 
bodies  are  closely  related  during  each 
Manvantara  with  the  mankind  of  that 
special  cycle;  and  there  are  some  who 
believe  that  each  great  character  born 
during  that  period  has  as  every  other 
mortal  has — only  in  far  stronger  degree 
— his  destiny  outlined  within  its  proper 
constellation  or  star."10    The  position 

9  The  Secret  Doctrine,  I.  647. 
i°Ibid.,  III.  341. 

28 


COMPETING  FAITHS 

of  the  founder,  as  thus  indicated,  was 
not  followed  by  the  whole  body  of 
Theosophists.  "The  members  of  the 
Society/'  says  G.  R.  S.  Mead,  "take 
up  the  most  divergent  and  contra- 
dictory attitudes  with  regard  to  astrol- 
ogy; some  believe  in  it  with  various 
qualifications,  a  few  even  make  it  a 
religion,  as  it  were;  some  ridicule  it 
as  an  absurd  superstition,  and  pro- 
claim the  astrologer  a  charlatan;  the 
majority  are  inclined  to  think  there 
may  be  something  in  it,  but  are 
content  to  admit  their  ignorance  of 
the  art,  and  what  is  more  their  in- 
difference to  it."11  The  writer  of  this 
extract  may  be  presumed  to  have 
been  well  informed;  but  we  surmise 
that  it  will  be  found  difficult  for 
Theosophists  as  a  body,  with  their 
bent  to  magnify  the  worth  of  the 
mystical  and  magical  scheme  of  an- 
tiquity, to  take  up  an  attitude  of 
sheer  indifference  toward  astrology. 

"  Extracts  from  The  Vahac,  edited  by  Sarah  Corbett,  p.  616. 
29 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

As  respects  the  great  religions,  The- 
osophy  asserts  a  broad  proposition 
which  might  seem  to  imply  that  they 
stand  upon  a  substantial  parity.  It 
pronounces  them  all  to  be  identical 
in  their  esoteric  content,  however 
widely  they  may  be  contrasted  in 
their  exoteric  or  popular  form.  "Theos- 
ophy,"  says  Leadbeater,  "is  iden- 
tical with  esoteric  Buddhism  and 
Hinduism,  but  then  so  it  is  with 
esoteric  Zoroastrianism,  esoteric  Mo- 
hammedanism, and  esoteric  Christian- 
ity.^12 In  less  direct  terms  the  fol- 
lowing words  of  Mrs.  Besant  emphasize 
the  idea  that  fundamentally  the  great 
religions  are  one:  "Whether  the  person 
pray  to  Buddha,  to  Vishnu,  to  Christ, 
to  the  Father,  it  matters  not  at 
all."13 

But  notwithstanding  this  formal 
proposition  on  the  underlying  identity 
of  religions,  Theosophical  writings  con- 

12  Extracts  from  The  Vahan,  p.  4. 

13  The  Seven  Principles  of  Man,  p.  58. 

30 


COMPETING  FAITHS 

tain  not  a  little  in  the  line  of  a  rel- 
ative disparagement  of  Christianity 
and  a  relative  glorification  of  the 
leading  systems  of  the  East,  especially 
those  which  hav*e  had  their  historic 
theater  in  India.  In  general,  the 
champions  of  Theosophy  speak  of 
Christian  missionaries  in  very  con- 
temptuous terms,  and  some  of  them 
give  abundant  evidences  of  a  veritable 
spite  toward  Christianity.  This  is 
emphatically  true  of  Madame  Blavat- 
sky.  In  various  ways  she  gives  ex- 
pression to  her  appetite  for  a  virtual 
vilification.  "The  Israelitish  Scrip- 
tures/ '  she  says,  "drew  their  hidden 
wisdom  from  the  primal  Wisdom- 
Religion  that  was  the  source  of  the 
other  Scriptures,  only  it  was  sadly 
degraded  by  being  applied  to  things 
and  mysteries  of  this  earth,  instead 
of  those  in  the  higher  and  ever- 
present,  though  invisible,  spheres."14 
She  charges  the  Biblical  religion  with 

li  The  Secret  Doctrine,  III.  172. 
31 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

wholesale  borrowing.  " While  the  doc- 
trines, ethical  code,  and  observances 
of  the  Christian  religion  were  all  ap- 
propriated from  Brahmanism  and  Bud- 
dhism, its  ceremonies,  vestments,  and 
pageantry  were  taken  bodily  from 
Lamaism."15  And  much  of  this  bor- 
rowing would  seem  not  to  have  had 
the  merit  of  being  at  first  hand,  for 
she  tells  us  in  another  connection: 
"The  doctrines  of  the  Gospels,  and 
even  of  the  Old  Testament,  have  been 
taken  bodily  from  the  book  of  Enoch. 
The  whole  of  the  Pentateuch  was 
adapted  to  fit  in  with  the  facts  given."16 
On  the  character  of  the  Pentateuch 
she  makes  this  envenomed  comment: 
"In  its  hidden  meaning,  from  Genesis 
to  the  last  word  of  Deuteronomy,  the 
Pentateuch  is  the  symbolical  narrative 
of  the  sexes,  and  is  an  apotheosis  of 
Phallicism,  under  astronomical  and 
physiological  personations. ' ' 17    Scarcely 

*  Ibis  Unveiled,  II.  211. 

>•  The  Secret  Doctrine,  III.  87. 

*  The  Secret  Doctrine,  III.  172,  173. 

32 


COMPETING  FAITHS 

more  complimentary  is  her  estimate 
of  the  supreme  objects  of  worship 
recognized  by  Christianity.  She  names 
the  gods  of  so-called  monotheistic  re- 
ligions "a  blasphemous  and  sorry  cari- 
cature of  the  ever  unknowable,"18  and 
affirms  of  Jehovah,  "It  is  only  in  the 
capacity  of  the  genius  of  the  moon, 
the  latter  being  credited  in  the  old 
cosmogony  with  being  the  parent  of 
the  earth,  that  he  can  ever  be  re- 
garded as  the  creator  of  our  globe."19 
With  an  obvious  intent  to  heap  scorn 
upon  Catholic  Christianity,  she  extols 
Simon  Magus  and  rates  his  system  "as 
near  to  Occult  Truth  as  any."20 

The  most  that  Madame  Blavatsky 
concedes  to  Christianity  is  that  Jesus 
in  respect  of  disposition  was  "as  noble 
and  loving"  as  Gautama,  and  this 
statement  she  qualifies  by  the  declara- 
tion that  he  was  handicapped  by 
appearing   "among   another   and   less 

18  Ibid.,  Introduction,  p.  xx. 

»  Ibid.,  II.  474. 

*>Ibid.,  III.  113,  465,  466. 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

spiritual  race."21  In  repeated  instances 
she  affirms  the  primacy  of  India  in 
religion  and  philosophy.  "It  is  main- 
tained/' she  writes,  "that  India  is 
the  only  country  in  the  world  which 
still  has  among  her  sons  adepts  who 
have  the  knowledge  of  the  seven  sys- 
tems. ...  As  for  the  Hebrews,  they 
never  had  the  higher  keys."22  She 
reads  a  lesson  of  humility  to  Christian 
scholars  who  have  dealt  with  Eastern 
systems  in  these  terms:  "One  need 
not  go  very  deep  into  the  literature 
of  the  Orientalists  to  become  convinced 
that  in  most  cases  they  do  not  even 
suspect  that  in  the  arcane  philosophy 
of  India  there  are  depths  which  they 
have  not  sounded,  and  cannot  sound, 
for  they  pass  on  without  perceiving 
them."23 

While  Madame  Blavatsky  outruns 
the  great  majority  of  Theosophical 
writers  in  the  measure  of  her  scorn- 

11  The  Secret  Doctrine,  III.  382. 

«  Ibid.,  I.  311. 

«  Isis  Unveiled,  II.  102,  103. 

34 


COMPETING  FAITHS 

ful  references  to  the  Bible  and  Chris- 
tianity, a  spice  of  the  same  element 
enters  into  the  literature  of  the  entire 
school.  In  rare  instances,  as  in  case 
of  Colville,  a  serious  effort  may  be 
made  to  place  the  Christian  religion 
on  a  parity  with  the  leading  systems 
of  India;  but  even  in  these  instances 
this  measure  of  credit  is  given  not 
to  historic  Christianity,  but  to  the 
scheme  which  Theosophic  dogmatism 
has  constructed  largely  out  of  Hindu 
materials  and  has  chosen  to  identify 
with  esoteric  Christianity.  Either  im- 
plicitly or  explicitly  the  preference  for 
the  faiths  of  India  comes  to  expres- 
sion. The  explicit  form  appears  in 
the  remark  of  Judge:  "Buddhism  is 
the  last  of  the  great  Avatars,  and  is 
in  a  larger  circle  than  is  Jesus  of  the 
Jews."24  Equally  clear  in  their  testi- 
mony to  the  direction  of  preference 
are  the  words  of  Leadbeater:  "The 
broad    outlines    of    the    great    truths 

24  The  Ocean  of  Theosophy,  p.  120. 
35 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

have  been  widely  known  in  the  world 
for  thousands  of  years,  and  are  so 
known  at  the  present  day.  It  is  only 
we  in  the  West  who,  in  our  incredible 
self-sufficiency,  have  remained  ignorant 
of  them."25  Mrs.  Besant  may  also  be 
cited  in  this  connection,  for  while  she 
praises  Jesus  in  fervent  words,  she 
makes  him  a  debtor  to  Eastern  wis- 
dom, of  which  he  is  assumed  to  have 
been  a  devoted  student  for  many 
years.26  Moreover,  she  fulfills  the  part 
of  a  resolute  apologist  of  Hinduism. 
To  use  the  language  of  a  competent 
observer:  "The  depths  to  which  Mrs. 
Besant  habitually  descends  in  defend- 
ing Hinduism  will  hardly  be  believed. 
There  is  scarcely  an  exploded  doctrine, 
scarcely  a  superstitious  observance, 
which  she  has  not  defended.  No  one 
who  has  not  scanned  the  files  of  the 
Central  Hindu  College  Magazine  or 
the  reports  of  Mrs.  Besant's  lectures 

*  An  Outline  of  Theosophy,  p.  9. 
*>  Esoteric  Christianity,  p.  130. 
36 


COMPETING  FAITHS 

in  India  has  any  idea  of  the  indescrib- 
able rubbish  which  Theosophy  has  pre- 
sented to  its  Hindu  members."27 


17  J.  N.  Farquhar,  Modern  Religious  Movements  in  India,  1915, 
pp.  287.  288. 


37 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  BASIS  OF  AUTHORITY 

On  this  theme  two  leading  assump- 
tions run  through  Theosophical  writ- 
ings: (1)  There  exists,  and  has  existed 
from  time  immemorial,  a  body  of 
advanced  men,  named  Adepts,  Mahat- 
mas,  Initiates,  etc.,  who  have  served 
as  depositaries  of  the  primitive  Wis- 
dom-Religion, and  who  are  the  only- 
competent  interpreters  of  man  and  the 
universe  to  whom  any  access  is  pro- 
vided. (2)  This  body  of  advanced 
men  makes  use  of  selected  members 
of  the  Theosophical  Society  as  instru- 
ments for  disseminating  such  portions 
of  their  superior  knowledge  as  may 
fitly  be  imparted  to  the  present  age. 

Leading  Theosophical  writers  treat 
both  of  these  assumptions  as  alike 
fundamental   and    indisputable.     The 

38 


THE  BASIS  OF  AUTHORITY 

high  strain  in  which  they  depict  the 
Mahatma  or  Adept  is  as  marked  a 
specimen  of  enthusiastic  idealization  as 
can  be  found  in  modern  literature. 
"A  Mahatma,"  says  Mrs.  Besant,  "is 
a  living  man  who  has  evolved  more 
rapidly  than  the  vast  majority  of  the 
human  race,  and  has  reached  a  stage 
of  mental,  moral,  and  spiritual  de- 
velopment which  will  be  attained  by 
the  race  in  the  future  only  at  the  end 
of  millenniums  of  years.  He  is  the 
perfected  flower  of  humanity,  the  ideal 
man,  the  promise  of  the  future  realized 
to-day.  In  him  the  spiritual  nature 
is  developed  and  works  unrestrainedly 
through  the  mental  and  physical,  so 
that  he  has  become  the  master  of  all 
forces  in  nature  and  can  utilize  them 
at  will."1  The  Adepts,  Sinnett  assures 
us,  can  converse  with  one  another  at 
any  distance,  "and  their  clairvoyant 
faculties  are  so  perfect  and  complete 
that    they    amount    to    a   species    of 

1  Exposition  of  Theosophy,  p.  19. 

39 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

omniscience  as  regards  mundane  af- 
fairs."2 He  even  expresses  the  belief 
that  they  are  as  far  above  ordinary 
mankind  as  man  is  above  the  insects 
of  the  field.3  Their  word,  Judge  tells 
us,  has  finality  against  any  competing 
authority.  "Let  science  laugh  as  it 
may,  the  Adepts  are  the  only  true 
scientists.  .  .  .  The  records  of  the 
visions  of  the  greater  and  lesser  seers, 
through  the  ages,  are  extant  to-day. 
Of  their  mass  nothing  has  been  ac- 
cepted except  that  which  has  been 
checked  and  verified  by  millions  of 
independent  observations.  ...  If  we 
find  the  Adepts  stating  that  the  moon 
is  not  a  mass  thrown  off  from  the 
earth  in  cooling,  but  on  the  contrary 
the  progenitor  of  this  globe,  we  need 
not  fear  the  jeers  of  a  science  that 
is  as  uncertain  and  unsafe  in  many 
things  as  it  is  positive."4  J.  D.  Buck 
expresses  a  like  view  of  the  relative 

*The  Occult  World,  p.  15. 

J  Esoteric  Buddhism,  p.  202. 

4  Echoes  from  the  Orient,  pp.  10-14. 

40 


THE  BASIS  OF  AUTHORITY 

competency  of  the  Adepts,  classing 
them  as  men  "who  possess  a  knowl- 
edge of  science  so  profound  as  to 
dwarf  into  insignificance  our  boasted 
modern  discoveries."5 

One  important  source  at  the  com- 
mand of  the  Adepts  is  an  unparalleled 
collection  of  the  world's  literature. 
This  unique  advantage  is  thus  de- 
picted by  Madame  Blavatsky:  "The 
members  of  several  esoteric  schools — 
the  seat  of  which  is  beyond  the  Him- 
alayas— claim  to  have  in  their  posses- 
sion the  sum  total  of  sacred  and  phil- 
osophical works  in  manuscript  and 
type:  all  the  works,  in  fact,  that  have 
ever  been  written,  in  whatever  lan- 
guage or  characters,  since  the  art  of 
writing  began;  from  the  ideographic 
hieroglyphs  down  to  the  alphabet  of 
Cadmus  and  the  Devanagan."6  With 
this  statement  she  couples  a  report 
of  the  existence  in  the  subterranean 


*  The  Nature  and  Aim  of  Theoaophy,  p.  32. 
8  The  Secret  Doctrine,  Introduction,  p.  xxiii. 
41 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

passages  under  a  single  hamlet,  located 
in  a  mountain  gorge,  of  a  collection 
of  books  too  large  to  find  accommoda- 
tion in  the  British  Museum. 

The  principal  habitat  of  the  Adepts 
is  commonly  placed  by  Theosophical 
opinion  in  Tibet.  "They  constitute/' 
writes  Sinnett,  "a  Brotherhood,  or  Se- 
cret Association,  that  ramifies  all  over 
the  East,  but  the  principal  seat  of 
which  for  the  present  I  gather  to  be 
in  Tibet."7  Olcott  evidently  regarded 
this  as  the  orthodox  view  when  he 
wrote:  "On  the  high  plateau  of  the 
Himavat  are  men  who  know  psychol- 
ogy, men  who  are  the  successors  of 
a  thousand  generations  of  Aryan  and 
Hindu  sages,  who  all  this  time  have 
known  what  man  is  and  what  his 
powers  are."8 

On  the  closeness  of  the  bond  be- 
tween the  Adepts  and  the  Theosophical 
Society  our  informants  would  have  us 


»  The  Occult  World,  p.  24. 

*  Theoeophy,  Religion,  and  Occult  Science,  pp.  136,  137. 
42 


THE  BASIS  OF  AUTHORITY 

understand  that  there  is  no  just  ground 
for  question.  This  point  is  obviously, 
for  them,  of  great  practical  moment, 
since  the  existence  of  Adepts  would 
be  no  sort  of  a  credential  for  their 
system  apart  from  the  assumed  choice 
of  the  Adepts  to  use  them  as  a  channel 
for  their  superior  wisdom.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  most  conspicuous  exponents 
of  Theosophy  have  followed  the  path 
of  logical  consistency,  and  have  not 
been  deterred  by  an  undue  modesty 
from  claiming  the  cooperation  of  the 
Great  Brotherhood.  Madame  Blavat- 
sky  represented  herself  as  only  a  kind 
of  secondary  agent  in  the  production 
of  the  works  bearing  her  name.  In 
the  announcement  of  Isis  Unveiled  she 
said:  "The  work  now  submitted  to 
public  judgment  is  the  fruit  of  a  some- 
what intimate  acquaintance  with  East- 
ern Adepts  and  study  of  their  science."9 
Doubtless  it  was  on  the  basis  of  her 
testimony  that  Sinnett  felt  authorized 

8  Ieis  Unveiled,  Preface. 

43 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

to  report  that  great  patches  of  the 
treatise  were  contributed  outright  by 
the  Brothers.10  On  her  essentially 
instrumental  position  in  the  production 
of  The  Secret  Doctrine,  Madame  Bla- 
vatsky  was  very  outspoken,  declaring 
in  the  preface,  "This  work  is  a  partial 
statement  of  what  the  author  has 
been  taught  by  more  advanced  stu- 
dents, supplemented,  in  a  few  details 
only,  by  the  results  of  her  own  study 
and  observation."  Elsewhere  she 
styled  the  Mahatmas  the  founders 
and  guardians  of  the  Theosophical 
Society.  "We  call  them,"  she  said, 
"  'Masters'  because  they  are  our  teach- 
ers, and  because  from  them  we  have 
derived  all  the  Theosophical  truths, 
however  inadequately  some  of  us  have 
expressed  them,  and  others  understood 
them."11  As  is  indicated  by  this  state- 
ment, she  was  too  prudent  to  make 
the  gentlemen  behind  the  veil  respon- 


10  The  Occult  World,  p.  160. 
u  Tbe  Key  to  Theosophy,  pp.  275,  277. 
44 


THE  BASIS  OF  AUTHORITY 

sible  for  all  verbal  peculiarities  in 
Theosophical  writings.  While  she  as- 
serts that  "there  are  passages  entirely 
dictated  by  them  verbatim/ '  she  adds, 
"but  in  most  cases  they  only  inspire 
the  ideas,  and  leave  the  literary  form 
to  the  writers."12  So  speaks  the  high 
priestess  of  Theosophy,  and  it  is  evi- 
dently but  a  sober  statement  of  her 
teaching  which  is  given  us  in  this 
proposition:  "The  Theosophical  Society 
is  the  medium  through  which  the 
Brothers  have  undertaken  to  present 
to  the  world  their  long-cherished  doc- 
trines, in  such  form  as  the  world  is 
found  ready  to  receive/'13 

It  will  perhaps  be  objected  to  the 
above  that  Theosophists  have  some- 
times asserted  that  members  of  their 
Society  are  privileged  to  be  neutral 
on  the  question  of  the  existence  and 
agency  of  Mahatmas.  But  the  mo- 
tive for  such  statements  has  not  come 


»  Ibid.,  p.  278. 

u  Buck,  The  Nature  and  Aim  of  Theosophy,  pp.  34,  35. 

45 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

from  the  logic  of  their  system,  but, 
rather,  from  the  difficulty  of  securing 
any  sort  of  credibility  to  the  postulate 
on  the  actual  existence  of  Mahatmas. 
Mrs.  Besant,  however  she  may  have 
expressed  herself  elsewhere,  simply  con- 
formed to  the  logical  demand  when 
she  said:  "If  there  are  no  Masters, 
then  the  Theosophical  Society  is  an 
absurdity."14 

14  Article  in  Lucifer,  December,  1890,  cited  by  Garrett,  laia 
Very  Much  Unveiled,  pp.  106,  107. 


46 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  DOCTRINE  OF  GOD 

On  this  subject  Theosophic  Dog- 
matism is  characterized  in  the  first 
place  by  a  resolute  denial  of  the  per- 
sonality of  God,  that  is,  of  God  con- 
sidered as  the  Highest  Being,  the  Ab- 
solute. "We  reject/'  says  Madame 
Blavatsky,  "the  idea  of  a  personal 
or  extra-cosmic  and  anthropomorphic 
God,"1  and  from  other  statements  we 
gather  that  the  rejection  extends  to 
the  assumption  of  divine  personality 
in  any  form  in  which  it  has  had  cur- 
rency in  the  Christian  Church.  Her 
fundamental  preference  for  the  imper- 
sonal appears  in  her  substitution  of 
"Universal  Principle"  or  "Absolute 
Principle"  for  the  name  of  God,  as 
also  in  such  declarations  as  that  the 


1  The  Key  to  Theosophy,  p.  61. 
47 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

Absolute  does  not  think  or  exist  but 
is,    rather,    thought    and    existence.2 
Scarcely  less  distinctly  it  appears  in 
her  rating  of  Von  Hartmann's  philos- 
ophy   as    the    highest    philosophy    of 
the   West.3     To   a   Being   thus   con- 
ceived, creation,  as  the  execution  of 
plan  or  purpose,   must  evidently  be 
counted  foreign,  and  we  have  in  place 
of   it   the   notion   of   an   inexplicable 
alternation  of  the  differentiation  and 
reabsorption  of  the  world.     "The  eso- 
teric doctrine/'  writes  Madame  Bla- 
vatsky,  "teaches,  like  Buddhism  and 
Brahmanism,  and  even  the  persecuted 
Kabala,  that  the  one  infinite  and  un- 
known essence  exists  from  all  eternity, 
and  in  regular  and  harmonious  suc- 
cessions  is   either   passive   or   active. 
In  the  poetical  phraseology  of  Manu 
these  conditions  are  called  the  'day' 
and  the   'night'   of  Brahma."4     Con- 

*  The  Key  to  Theoeophy,  pp.  64,  65. 

»  The  Secret  Doctrine,  I.  281. 
'     *  Iais  Unveiled,  II.  264.     Compare  Judge,  Ocean  of  Theoeophy 
pp.  14,  15. 

48 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  GOD 

sistently  with  the  negation  of  the 
personality  of  God,  Madame  Blavatsky 
rules  out  the  propriety  of  prayer, 
except  in  the  sense  of  an  internal 
command;  and  this  she  decides  to  let 
pass  as  a  prayer  to  the  Father  in 
heaven  in  the  esoteric  meaning  of  the 
phrase — that  is,  to  God  in  man  him- 
self.5 An  equivalent  interpretation  of 
the  Father  in  heaven  has  been  proffered 
by  A.  A.  Wells.6  Some  representatives 
of  Theosophy  may  have  been  rather 
more  appreciative  of  prayer  in  its 
objective  relation  than  was  the  foun- 
dress, but  in  common  they  reject  the 
personality  of  the  Supreme  Being. 

Closely  associated  with  this  feature 
is  an  extreme  emphasis  on  the  tran- 
scendence of  God  as  Absolute  Prin- 
ciple. The  vacuity  into  which  Neo- 
Platonism  pushes  the  thought  of  God 
is  rivaled  by  one  and  another  writer, 
and  especially  by  the  most  authori- 


*  Key  to  Theosophy,  pp.  66-68. 

•  Extracts  from  The  Vahan,  p.  143. 

49 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

tative  of  all.  Speculation  on  the 
Ultimate  Principle,  Madame  Blavatsky 
informs  us,  is  impossible.  "It  is  beyond 
the  range  and  reach  of  thought.' '  In 
spite  of  the  paradoxical  appearance  of 
the  statement,  in  the  Absolute  is  real- 
ized "the  idea  of  eternal  Non-Being 
which  is  the  One  Being.  It  cannot 
be  conceived  to  have  any  relation  to 
the  finite  and  conditioned."7  "As  to 
the  Absolute,"  says  Judge,  "we  can 
do  no  more  than  say,  It  Is.  None  of 
the  great  teachers  of  the  School  ascribe 
qualities  to  the  Absolute."8  "The 
term  Absolute,"  remarks  G.  R.  S. 
Mead,  "must  be  kept  for  the  idea 
of  the  Deity  beyond  being."9 

It  is  quite  obvious  that  in  pursuing 
this  point  of  view  the  exponents  of 
Theosophy  have  not  respected  greatly 
either  the  claims  of  rationality  or  of 
self-consistency.    They  might  have  re- 

7  The  Secret  Doctrine,  I.  14,  45,  III.  205;  The  Key  to  Theoa- 
ophy,  pp.  61,  62. 

8  The  Ocean  of  Theosophy,  pp.  14,  15. 

9  Extracts  from  the  Vahan,  p.  692. 

50 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  GOD 

minded  themselves  that  to  place  the 
Absolute  beyond  being  is  no  more 
eligible  than  to  place  Him  below  being, 
since  either  form  of  expression  relegates 
him  to  nonentity  or  negates  his  being, 
and  involves  also  the  feat  of  getting 
a  plenum  out  of  a  vacuumy  since  all 
things  are  confessedly  from  the  Ab- 
solute. They  would  likewise  have 
written  to  better  edification  if,  while 
declaring  the  Absolute  to  be  incon- 
ceivable, they  had  not  applied  to  it 
such  terms  as  Omnipresent,  Eternal, 
Boundless,  and  Immutable;  for  these 
terms,  if  there  is  any  justification  for 
using  them,  fulfill  a  descriptive  func- 
tion, while  yet  the  strictly  inconceiv- 
able is  entirely  out  of  the  range  of 
description.  Equally,  a  normal  respect 
for  the  demands  of  self-consistency 
would  have  vetoed  the  combination  of 
the  statement,  that  "all  that  which 
is  emanates  from  the  Absolute,"10  with 


i»  Blavatsky,  The  Secret  Doctrine,  I.  295;  Judge,  The  Ocean 
of  Theoaophy,  pp.  14,  15. 

51 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

the  declaration  that  the  Absolute  can 
have  no  relation  with  the  finite  and 
conditioned,  the  rational  verdict  being 
that  between  source  and  product  there 
is  unavoidably  a  real  relation.  Like 
all  utra  dogmatism  which  makes  a  pre- 
tense of  agnosticism  and  high-fly- 
ing transcendentalism,  Theosophy  gets 
badly  mixed  up  in  its  exposition  of 
ultimate  reality. 

What  has  been  said  thus  far  in 
the  present  chapter  implies  that  the 
Theosophical  doctrine  of  God  and  the 
universe  is  roundly  pantheistic.  Theos- 
ophists  are  not  at  all  backward  in 
confessing  that  their  doctrine  has  this 
character.  Mrs.  Besant  says  that  "the 
Wisdom-Religion  teaches  a  profound 
pantheism/ '  that  technically  she  is  a 
pantheist,  and  that  "in  theology  Theos- 
ophy is  pantheistic."11  Madame  Bla- 
vatsky  abundantly  illustrates  every 
prominent  feature  of  the  radical  Brah- 


11  Exposition  of  Theosophy,  pp.  5,  28;  Why  I  Am  a  Theosophist, 
p.  18. 

52 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  GOD 

manical  pantheism  which  finds  its  cul- 
mination in  the  Vedanta  system.  As 
has  been  noted,  she  adopts  the  theory 
of  differentiations  from  the  Absolute, 
alternating  with  reabsorptions.  In  her 
interpretation  the  evolved  world  is  a 
temporary  illusion,  as  unreal  as  the 
reflection  of  the  moon  on  the  surface 
of  the  waters.  As  all  is  from  the 
Absolute,  evil  has  no  other  source; 
in  fact,  good  and  evil  are  aspects  or 
sides  of  the  One  Being.  To  all  grades 
of  individuated  being  reabsorption  is 
the  appointed  destiny.  The  Gods  at 
the  end  of  the  cycle  are  merged  in 
the  one  Absolute.12 

Madame  Blavatsky  is  credited  with 
having   used    in   one    connection    the 
words:    "There   is   no   God,    personal 
or   impersonal."13     But   this  atheistic 
declaration   is   too   exceptional   to  be 
emphasized.    Properly  she  is  character- 
is  Isis  Unveiled,  II.  264;  The  Secret  Doctrine,  I.  281,  295,  413, 
414;  II.  515;  III.  449,  450;  Key  to  Theosophy,  pp.  63,  83,  111, 
132;  The  Caves  and  Jungles  of  Hindustan,  p.  49. 
«  Cited  from  the  Theosophiat,  May,  1882. 
53 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

ized  as  a  radical  pantheist,  with  a 
leaning  to  polytheism  as  against  mono- 
theism. This  leaning  comes  out,  on 
the  one  hand,  in  contemptuous  refer- 
ences to  the  monotheistic  religions,14 
and,  on  the  other,  in  polytheistic  repre- 
sentations of  the  creative  function.  In 
one  instance  she  ascribes  the  creation 
of  the  bodies  of  men  to  the  Lunar 
Pitris  and  the  endowment  of  men 
with  their  immortal  egos  to  the  solar 
angels,15  and  in  another  instance  she 
employs  this  language:  "It  is  not  the 
Principle,  One  and  Unconditioned,  nor 
even  its  reflection,  that  creates,  but 
only  the  Seven  Gods  who  fashion  the 
universe  out  of  eternal  matter,  unified 
into  objective  life  by  the  reflection 
into  it  of  the  One  Reality."16  This 
polytheistic  phase  is  clearly  duplicated 
by  Mrs.  Besant.  "Each  Logos,"  she 
writes,  "is  to  his  own  universe  the 
central  object  of  adoration,   and   his 

n  The  Secret  Doctrine,  Introduction,  p.  xx,  II.  158. 
»»  Ibid.,  II.  88,  89. 
»  The  Secret  Doctrine,  III.  209. 
54 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  GOD 

radiant  ministers  are  rightly  worshiped 
by  those  who  cannot  rise  to  the  con- 
ception of  this  central  deity."17  It 
might  be  inferred  from  this  statement 
that  we  do  very  well  to  stop  with  the 
Logos  or  Deity  of  our  solar  system, 
and  so  Leadbeater  advises  us.18  Sinnett 
postulates  an  object  of  reverence  some- 
what more  local,  telling  us  that  a 
Mighty  Being,  the  Spirit  of  the  Earth, 
presides  over  the  growth  and  health 
of  the  planet.19  Evidently,  in  Theos- 
ophy  pantheism  has  made  friends  with 
polytheism,  and  herein  the  assimilation 
to  Hinduism  is  very  marked. 

17  Some  Problems  of  Life,  pp.  82,  83. 

18  An  Outline  of  Theoeophy,  p.  24. 
16  The  Growth  of  the  Soul,  p.  300. 


56 


CHAPTER  VI 

COSMOLOGICAL  THEORIES 

Theosophy  asserts  the  eternity  of 
the  world,  though  certainly  with  doubt- 
ful consistency  by  the  pen  of  Madame 
Blavatsky.  On  the  one  hand  she  lays 
down,  as  a  fundamental  proposition, 
"the  eternity  of  the  universe  in  toto 
as  a  boundless  plane,  periodically  the 
playground  of  numberless  universes, 
incessantly  manifesting  and  disappear- 
ing."1 She  asserts,  furthermore,  that 
matter  is  eternal,  the  basis  on  which 
the  Universal  Mind  builds  its  ideation.2 
On  the  other  hand  she  says:  "The 
Creative  Force  is  eternal  as  noumenon; 
as  a  phenomenal  manifestation  in  its 
aspects  it  has  a  beginning  and  must 
therefore  have  an  end."3     Moreover, 

1  The  Secret  Doctrine,  I.  16. 

2  Ibid.,  I.  280. 

» Ibid.,  I.  373,  374. 

56 


COSMOLOGICAL  THEORIES 

having  denned  creation  as  the  Eternal 
Reality  casting  a  periodical  reflection 
of  itself  on  the  infinite  spatial  depths, 
she  adds:  "This  reflection  which  you 
regard  as  the  objective  material  uni- 
verse, we  consider  as  a  temporary 
illusion  and  nothing  else."4  Putting 
the  various  statements  together  we 
seem  to  reach  the  conclusion  that  the 
world,  as  distinguished  from  the  Primal 
Cause  or  Eternal  Reality,  had  a  begin- 
ning as  a  phenomenal  manifestation, 
and  is  in  fact  a  temporary  illusion.  A 
succession  of  such  worlds  is  indeed 
affirmed;  but  it  is  not  warrantable  to 
assume  that  the  addition  of  the  tem- 
poral inaugurates  the  eternal. 

The  thesis  on  the  illusory  character 
of  the  world,  which  the  foundress 
borrowed  from  Hindu  philosophy,  has 
found  occasional  utterance  in  the  The- 
osophical  camp.  Thus  A.  A.  Wells 
has  remarked:  "We  must  never  forget 
that,  after  all,  the  great  law  of  Karma, 

*  The  Key  to  Theosophy,  p.  83. 
5? 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

and  everything  with  which  it  deals, 
are  but  portions  of  the  great  illusion — 
the  Maya  which  defends  our  weak 
eyes  from  the  overpowering  radiance 
of  the  divine  glory."5  There  is  some 
ground,  however,  for  suspecting  that 
one  and  another  among  Theosophists 
entertain  a  rather  scanty  appreciation 
for  the  genuine  Hindu  doctrine  of 
Maya  or  world-illusion.  We  notice 
that  Sinnett  is  minded  to  interpret 
the  doctrine  as  denoting  only  the 
relative  impermanency  of  the  world.6 

Another  general  characteristic  af- 
firmed of  the  world  is  the  universal 
diffusion  of  life  and  even  of  sentiency. 
Madame  Blavatsky  approves  hylozo- 
ism  as  being  in  its  philosophical  sense 
correct  pantheism.7  Everything  in  the 
universe,  she  says,  even  down  to  the 
stones,  has  a  consciousness  of  its  kind.8 
Judge  asserts  that  "all  nature  is  sen- 

*  Extracts  from  the  Vahan,  pp.  153,  154. 
8  The  Growth  of  the  Soul,  pp.  100,  101. 

7  The  Secret  Doctrine,  II.  158. 

8  Ibid.,  I.  274. 

58 


COSMOLOGICAL  THEORIES 

tient."9  "There  is  no  difference," 
writes  Burcham  Harding,  "save  in 
degree,  between  the  lives  that  are 
found  in  the  minerals,  in  plants  and 
trees,  in  animal  and  human  bodies — 
for  all  are  parts  of  the  One  Life."10 

Madame  Blavatsky  has  been  cited 
on  the  necessary  function  of  the  The- 
osophical  Society  as  a  bulwark  against 
a  threatening  materialism.  Mrs.  Be- 
sant  dignifies  the  office  of  the  Society 
in  similar  terms.  "I  look  upon  the 
reproclamation  of  Theosophy,"  she 
says,  "as  the  deliberate  answer  of 
the  Masters,  the  Adepts,  to  the  rise 
of  materialism  in  the  Western  world."11 
In  view  of  such  statements,  we  natur- 
ally are  led  to  expect  that  Theosophi- 
cal  writings  will  appear  thoroughly 
charged  with  spiritualistic  or  anti- 
materialistic  teachings.  But  that  is 
not  found  to  be  the  case.  If  by  ma- 
terialism is  meant  a  theoretic  system 

9  The  Ocean  of  Theosophy,  p.  2. 

10  Brotherhood  Nature's  Law,  pp.  5,  6. 

11  Exposition  of  Theosophy,  p.  29. 

59 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

of  a  particular  type,  then  Theosophy 
can  be  said,  rather,  to  compromise 
with  materialism  than  to  carry  out  a 
consistent  opposition.  It  does  not 
uniformly  assign  a  distinct  primacy  to 
spirit  as  against  matter.  Doubtless 
statements  may  be  found,  like  the 
declaration  of  Colville,  that  "spirit  is 
both  Alpha  and  Omega."12  But  repre- 
sentations which  carry  a  quite  differ- 
ent suggestion  also  occur.  No  justice 
is  done  to  the  primacy  of  spirit  in 
Madame  Blavatsky's  declaration  that 
spirit  and  matter  "are  but  the  two 
facets  of  the  one  Absolute  Existence' Y3 
or  in  the  further  assertion,  "spirit 
and  matter  are  one,  being  the  two 
opposite  poles  of  the  universal  man- 
ifested substance";14  or  in  the  plain 
admission  that  she  insists  upon  the 
identity  of  spirit  and  matter,  rating 
spirit  as  potential  matter,  "and  matter 
simply  crystallized  spirit,  just  as  ice 

i2  Studies  in  Theosophy,  p.  201. 
is  The  Secret  Doctrine,  I.  326. 
n  The  Key  to  Theosophy,  p.  215. 
60 


COSMOLOGICAL  THEORIES 

is  solidified  steam. "15  In  her  psycho- 
logical theory,  as  cited  by  Mrs.  Besant,16 
she  gives  place  to  the  thoroughly  ma- 
terialistic representation  that  " thought 
is  matter."  Mrs.  Besant  unequivocally 
adopts  this  point  of  view,  and  carries 
it  out  in  a  series  of  statements  as 
crassly  materialistic  as  can  be  found  in 
the  literature  of  modern  materialism. 
"A  Thought  form,"  she  affirms,  "is 
a  material  image  created  by  the  mind 
out  of  the  subtle  matter  of  the  higher 
psychic  plane  in  which  it  works.  This 
form,  composed  of  the  rapidly  vibrating 
atoms  of  the  matter  of  that  region, 
sets  up  vibrations  all  around  it."17 
"Pure  and  lofty  thoughts,"  she  says, 
"are  composed  of  rapid  vibrations.  .  .  . 
Vibrations  of  consciousness  are  ever 
shaking  out  one  kind  of  matter  and 
building  in  another."18  "Thought  im- 
ages," she  tells  us,   "once  generated, 


» Ibid.,  pp.  33,  34. 

10  Karma,  pp.  74,  75. 

O  Karma,  p.  13. 

»8  Thought  Power,  pp.  27,  28. 

61 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

assume  an  existence  of  their  own,  pass 
outward  into  the  astral  realm,  and  act 
therefrom  on  the  minds  of  other  men, 
influencing  them  to  action."19  Com- 
mending the  same  point  of  view,  Lead- 
beater  teaches  that  thoughts  are  in 
a  real  sense  things  and  to  clairvoyant 
sight  assume  form  and  color.  Rate 
of  vibration,  he  indicates,  is  a  prin- 
cipal determinant  of  the  grade  of  being. 
"Physical  matter  may  become  astral, 
or  astral  may  become  mental,  if  only 
it  be  sufficiently  subdivided,  and  caused 
to  vibrate  with  the  proper  degree  of 
rapidity."20  While  the  soul  of  man, 
urges  Sinnett,  is  much  more  subtle 
and  lasting  than  the  body,  it  is  itself 
"a  material  reality."21  With  Judge 
we  find  the  comprehensive  statement 
that  the  universe  exists  "for  the  pur- 
pose of  raising  the  entire  mass  of 
manifested  matter  up  to  the  stature, 
nature,  and  dignity  of  conscious  god- 

19  Exposition  of  Theosophy,  pp.  13-15. 
»  An  Outline  of  Theosophy,  pp.  38,  86. 
«  The  Occult  World,  p.  19. 

62 


COSMOLOGICAL  THEORIES 

hood;"22  and  Mrs.  Besant  makes  it 
an  important  part  of  man's  task  to 
sublime  matter  into  spirit.23  In  short, 
it  is  plain  enough  that  Theosophy,  as 
understood  by  its  leading  exponents, 
is  broadly  streaked  with  materialistic 
tenets.  So  far  at  least  as  psychological 
theory  is  concerned,  it  rivals  the  ultra 
declarations  of  such  materialists  as 
Vogt,  Moleschott,  Buchner,  and  Ca- 
banis. 

A  detailed  description  of  the  uni- 
verse as  a  whole  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  attempted  by  representatives 
of  modern  Theosophy.  The  domain 
with  which  they  are  specially  concerned 
is  that  complex  sphere  which  serves 
as  a  theater  of  man's  multiplied  pere- 
grinations. About  this  they  have,  or 
at  least  claim  to  have,  a  mass  of  in- 
formation that  is  truly  astonishing. 
Our  earth,  they  tell  us,  is  one  in  a 
chain  of  seven  planets.    This  chain  is 


«  The  Ooean  of  Theosophy,  p.  60. 
a  Reincarnation,  p.  12. 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

quite  extraordinary,  most  of  its  mem- 
bers being  entirely  unknown  to  astron- 
omy as  commonly  understood.  Only 
our  earth,  according  to  Madame  Bla- 
vatsky,  is  in  the  visible  domain.24 
Sinnett,  on  the  other  hand,  includes 
Mars  and  Mercury  in  that  domain, 
and  assumes  that  only  four  out  of 
the  seven  planets  in  the  chain  are 
composed  of  matter  so  ethereal  that 
telescopes  cannot  take  cognizance  of 
them.25  Reckoning  Mars  as  third  in 
the  list,  the  earth  as  fourth,  and 
Mercury  as  fifth,  he  supposes  existence 
on  the  first  and  seventh  to  be  of  the 
Devachanic  (or  heavenly)  type,  on  the 
second  and  sixth  to  be  astral  in  na- 
ture.26 Man  as  a  subject  of  evolution 
and  progress  is  under  compulsion  to 
visit  these  several  spheres  in  a  series 
of  rounds,  and  the  time  required  for 
the  repeated  gyrations  of  his  pilgrimage 
is  nothing  less  than  enormous.     Even 

14  The  Key  to  Theoeophy,  p.  87. 
26  Esoteric  Buddhism,  pp.  136,  137. 
*  The  Growth  of  the  Soul,  pp.  263,  264. 
64 


COSMOLOGICAL  THEORIES 

the  number  of  periods  which  he  must 
spend  on  the  earth,  is  well-nigh  over- 
whelming to  contemplate.  "An  indi- 
vidual unit,  arriving  on  a  planet  for 
the  first  time  in  the  course  of  a  round, 
has  to  work  through  seven  races  on 
that  planet  before  he  passes  on  to  the 
next,  and  each  of  these  races  occupies 
the  earth  for  a  long  time.  Within  the 
limits  of  each  race  there  are  seven 
subdivisional  races,  and  again  within 
the  limits  of  each  subdivision  there  are 
seven  branch  races.  Through  all  these 
races,  roughly  speaking,  each  individual 
human  unit  must  pass  during  his  stay 
on  earth,  each  time  he  arrives  there, 
on  a  round  of  progress,  through  the 
planetary  system."27 

Supposing  the  recollection  of  one 
journey  to  be  carried  on  to  the  next, 
the  intinerant  would  have  an  oppor- 
tunity to  note  great  changes  in  the 
earth's  surface,  such  as  the  sinking  of 
the  immense  continent  of  Atlantis  in 

27  Sinnett,  Esoteric  Buddhism,  pp.  58,  59. 

65 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

the  region  now  occupied  by  the  At- 
lantic Ocean,  and  also  the  submergence 
of  the  greater  part  of  the  continent 
of  Lemuria,  which  once  stretched  from 
the  Indian  Ocean  to  Australia.  The 
one  event  occupied,  we  are  informed 
with  remarkable  precision,  a  period  of 
11,466  years,  and  the  other  took  place 
about  700,000  years  earlier.28  With 
an  insight  in  like  manner  greatly 
transcending  the  measures  of  ordinary 
science  our  authorities  assure  us  that 
besides  the  planetary  chain  of  which 
the  earth  is  a  member  there  are  six 
others  within  the  solar  system;29  but 
any  considerable  number  of  details 
respecting  these  seems  not  to  have 
been  divulged  by  the  Mahatmas. 

The  preference  entertained  by  the 
Theosophists  for  ancient  mythology, 
over  against  the  inductions  of  recent 
science,  is  very  strikingly  illustrated  by 
their  assumption  on  the  very  important 

*»  Blavatsky,   The   Secret   Doctrine,    II.   6-8;   Sinnett,   Esoteric 
Buddhism,  pp.  64,  65. 

29  Sinnett,  Esoteric  Buddhism,  p.  197. 

66 


COSMOLOGICAL  THEORIES 

relation  sustained  by  the  moon  to 
the  earth.  "It  is  the  moon,"  writes 
Madame  Blavatsky,  "that  plays  the 
largest  and  most  important  part,  as 
well  in  the  formation  of  the  earth 
itself,  as  in  the  peopling  thereof  with 
human  beings.  .  .  .  The  moon  is  far 
older  than  the  earth ;  and  it  is  the  latter 
which  owes  its  being  to  the  former.  .  .  . 
The  moon  is  the  giver  of  life  to  our 
globe."30 

The  superiority  of  Theosophical  in- 
formation to  the  conclusions  of  science 
crops  out  likewise  in  the  representation 
respecting  a  deep  orifice  in  the  polar 
regions.  "It  has  been  vaguely  known," 
says  Sinnett,  "by  occult  students  for 
a  long  time  that  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  north  pole  there  is  an  orifice  in 
the  ground  penetrating  to  inconceiv- 
able depths.  This  wonderful  shaft  has 
been  regarded  as  fulfilling  some  mys- 
terious need  of  the  earth,   analogous 


*>  The  Secret  Doctrine,   I.  180,  386;  II.  64.     Compare  Judge 
Echoes  from  the  Orient,  p.  14. 

67 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

to  breathing,  and  it  has  been  supposed 
that  a  similar  shaft  connects  the  south 
pole  with  the  interior."31 

The  fruitfulness  of  mythology  for 
the  Theosophical  mind  is  also  illus- 
trated in  notions  on  the  existence  and 
functions  of  "elementals."  Madame 
Blavatsky  gives  this  name  to  the 
creatures  evolved  in  the  four  king- 
doms of  earth,  air,  fire,  and  water, 
and  called  by  the  Kabalists  gnomes, 
sylphs,  salamanders,  and  undines. 
"These  elementals  are  the  principal 
agents  of  disembodied  but  never  vis- 
ible spirits  at  seances,  and  the  pro- 
ducers of  all  the  phenomena  except 
the  subjective."32  The  Adepts,  Sinnett 
informs  us,  have  good  reasons  for 
preserving  a  relative  silence  respecting 
the  elementals;  he  considers  himself, 
however,  qualified  to  state  that  they 
are  semi-intelligent  creatures  of  the 
astral   light,33   one   division   of   which 

»  The  Growth  of  the  Soul,  p.  297. 

83  Isis  Unveiled,  Preface,  pp.  xxix,  xxx. 

88  Esoteric  Buddhism,  p.  105. 

68 


COSMOLOGICAL  THEORIES 

may  have  been  formed  by  the  human 
will  from  the  ocean  of  elemental  es- 
sence, while  other  varieties  are  due  to 
natural  evolution.34 

The  chapter  should  not  be  closed 
without  a  reference  to  world  periods 
as  conceived  by  Theosophists.  With 
genuine  Hindu  prodigality  they  pile  up 
the  years  in  their  reckoning  to  a  dizzy 
height.  The  Manvantaras,  we  are 
told,  follow  one  another  like  successive 
waves,  and  a  Manvantara  is  a  grand 
period  comprising  311,040,000,000,000 
years.  The  proper  history  of  man 
began  no  less  than  18,000,000  years 
ago.35 


M  The  Growth  of  the  Soul,  p.  220. 

^Blavatsky,  The  Secret  Doctrine,  I.  36;  II.  9;  Judge,  Echoes 
from  the  Orient,  pp.  38-40;  The  Ocean  of  Theosophy,  pp.  21,  22. 


69 


CHAPTER  VII 

CONCEPTIONS  OF  MAN  AND 
HIS  DESTINY 

To  achieve  a  clear  exposition  of  this 
theme  is  no  easy  task.  The  predilec- 
tion of  Theosophists  for  the  grandiose 
and  complex,  their  pedantic  multipli- 
cation of  Sanskrit  terms  in  place  of 
plain  English,  and  their  slovenly  neg- 
lect of  the  proper  distinction  between 
the  material  and  the  spiritual,  combine 
to  weary  and  puzzle  the  mind  of  the 
interpreter.  If  any  should  be  disposed 
to  blame  us  for  lack  of  clarity  and 
simplicity  in  our  treatment  of  the 
present  subject,  let  him  blame  still 
more  the  Mahatmas  for  not  having 
furnished  better  guidance  to  the  oracles 
of  Theosophical  wisdom. 

In  the  evolutionary  scheme  of  The- 

70 


MAN  AND  HIS  DESTINY 

osophy  the  genesis  of  man  is  depicted 
as  starting  from  the  divine  essence, 
and  then  effected  through  successive 
stages  up  to  the  present  stage  of  con- 
creteness  or  condensation.  "When  the 
globe  was  forming,"  as  one  of  our 
oracles  reports,  "the  first  root-race  was 
more  or  less  ethereal  and  had  no  such 
body  as  we  now  inhabit.  The  cosmic 
environment  became  more  dense  and 
a  second  race  appeared,  soon  after 
which  the  first  wholly  disappeared. 
Then  the  third  came  on  the  scene, 
after  an  immense  lapse  of  time,  during 
which  the  second  had  been  developing 
the  bodies  needed  in  the  third.  At  the 
coming  of  the  fourth  root-race  it  is 
said  that  the  present  human  form  was 
evolved,  although  gigantic,  and  in 
some  respects  different  from  our  own. 
It  is  from  this  point — the  fourth  race 
— that  the  Theosophical  system  begins 
to  speak  of  man  as  such/'1  That  the 
race  which  eventuated  in  man  proper 

1  Judge,  Echoes  from  the  Orient,  p.  23. 

71 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

is  not  represented  by  fossil  remains 
in  remote  geological  formations  is  ex- 
plained by  the  tenuity  of  the  astral 
bodies  which  at  that  stage  were  in 
evidence.2  In  fact,  as  another  in- 
formant assures  us,  in  tracing  man's 
genesis  we  are  carried  back  to  a  kind 
of  nebula,  a  basis  of  humanity  which 
consisted  simply  in  a  great  cloud  of 
divine  essence."3  A  gaseous  entity  of 
the  sort  indicated  could  not  be  expected 
to  leave  definite  memorials  in  the  geo- 
logical records.  That  much  we  con- 
cede to  the  Theosophic  apologist, 
though  not  a  little  taken  back  by  his 
identification  of  the  divine  essence 
with  an  extended  and  volatile  sub- 
stance. But  what  about  our  nearer 
antecedents,  the  gigantic  men  of  the 
fourth  root-race?  We  suppose  that 
Madame  Blavatsky  refers  to  this  race 
when  she  teaches  that  "physical  man 
was   originally   a   colossal   pretertiary 


2  Judge,  Echoes  from  the  Orient,  pp.  39,  40. 

3  Leadbeater,  An  Outline  of  Theosophy,  pp.  76,  77. 

72 


MAN  AND  HIS  DESTINY 

giant/7  and  that  "he  existed  18,000,000 
years  ago."4  What  has  become  of.  his 
remains?  Possibly  it  will  be  sug- 
gested that  the  gigantic  race,  as  being 
identical  with  the  Atlanteans,  went  be- 
low the  plane  of  observation  in  the 
sinking  of  the  continent  of  Atlantis. 
But,  according  to  the  reported  figures, 
it  took  that  continent  11,466  years 
to  pass  to  its  ocean  grave,  and  it 
would  seem  that  during  so  long  a 
period  some  of  the  Atlanteans  would 
have  had  the  discretion  to  emigrate 
to  higher  and  safer  ground. 

Americans  and  Europeans  are  defined 
as  lineal  descendants  of  the  Atlanteans, 
or,  more  precisely,  as  Atlantean  monads 
reincarnated.5  As  a  further  aid  in 
locating  ourselves  we  may  note  that 
in  the  septenary  scheme  which  The- 
osophic  insight  has  discovered  to  ob- 
tain in  the  cosmos  we  are  in  the  fifth 
sub-race  of  the  fifth  race  of  the  fourth 


4  The  Secret  Doctrine,  II.  9. 

5  Judge,  Echoes  from  the  Orient,  pp.  20,  21. 

73 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

round.6  This  location  involves  the  con- 
clusion that  our  cyclic  movements  must 
go  on  for  an  incalculable  period  still.  No 
plea  of  dizziness  canbe  expected  to  secure 
our  releasefrom  any  of  the  rounds  or  from 
any  of  the  minor  circles  included  therein. 
In  Theosophical  anthropology  the 
assumption  that  man  is  septenary  in 
nature,  or  includes  within  the  compass 
of  his  being  seven  principles,  is  a 
fundamental  dogma.  Yet,  strangely 
enough,  Madame  Blavatsky  had  not 
arrived  at  the  knowledge  of  it  at  the 
time  she  wrote  Isis  Unveiled.  In  that 
elaborate  treatise  she  not  only  failed 
to  inculcate  the  septenary  nature  of 
man,  but  taught  a  contradictory  view, 
as  appears  in  this  statement:  "Man  is 
triune:  he  has  his  objective  physical 
body,  his  vitalizing  astral  body  (or 
soul),  the  real  man;  and  these  are 
brooded  over  by  the  third — the  sov- 
ereign, the  immortal  spirit."7 

e  Besant,  The  Seven  Principles  of  Man,  pp.  69,  70;  Sinnett, 
Esoteric  Buddhism,  p.  58. 
7  Iris  Unveiled,  II.  588. 

74 


MAN  AND  HIS  DESTINY 

The  list  of  seven  principles  in  one 
of  its  earlier  versions  includes  the 
following:  (1)  Body,  or  rupa:  (2)  vital- 
ity, or  pranajiva;  (3)  astral  body; 
(4)  animal  soul,  or  Kama-rupa;  (5) 
human  soul,  or  manas;  (6)  spiritual 
soul,  or  buddhi;  (7)  spirit,  or  atma.8 
In  a  later  list  we  have  these  con- 
stituents: (1)  Physical  body;  (2)  etheric 
double;  (3)  jiva,  or  life-force;  (4)  astral 
vehicle;  (5)  manas;  (6)  buddhi;  (7) 
atma.9  Another  version  of  the  seven 
principles,  also  comparatively  recent, 
gives  this  series:  (1)  dense  body;  (2) 
etheric  double;  (3)  prana  or  vitality; 
(4)  kama,  or  animal  soul;  (5)  manas; 
(6)  buddhi;  (7)  atma.10  The  first 
four  of  these  are  characterized  as  the 
perishable  quatenary,  and  the  last 
three  as  the  immortal  triad.  It  ac- 
cords with  the  Theosophical  dispar- 
agement of  personality  that  this  term 
should   be   applied   to   the   perishable 

s  Judge,  The  Ocean  of  Theosophy,  p.  31. 
9  Sinnett,  The  Growth  of  the  Soul,  p.  156. 
10  Besant,  Death  and  After,  p.  13. 

75 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

quatenary.11  The  true  man,  the  last- 
ing individuality ,  is  left  thus  to  be 
identified  with  manas,  buddhi,  and 
atma.  But  it  is  not  altogether  clear 
how  this  triad  is  to  be  construed.  One 
exponent  of  Theosophy  tells  us  that 
the  spirit,  or  atman,  is  no  individual 
property  of  any  man,  but  the  divine 
essence  which  by  its  omnipresent  light- 
radiated  through  buddhi,  its  vehicle 
and  direct  emanation,  pervades  the 
whole  body.12  A  second  exponent  in- 
forms us  that  both  atma  and  buddhi 
are  not  properly  incarnated  in  the 
present  race,  but  occupy  the  body 
simply  by  shining  upon  manas,  the 
principle  which  is  really  incarnated.13 
In  any  case  the  description  of  the  triad, 
in  which  man's  higher  self  consists, 
does  not  seem  to  introduce  us  to  a 
well-compacted  human  subject.  What 
we  are  led  to  contemplate  is  a  mental 
or  psychical  principle  with  which,  at 

11  Besant,  The  Seven  Principles  of  Man,  p.  24. 
12Blavatsky,  The  Key  to  Theosophy,  pp.  100.  101. 
13  Judge,  The  Ocean  of  Theosophy,  p.  66. 

76 


MAN  AND  HIS  DESTINY 

first-hand  or  second-hand,  a  divine  ray 
is  connected. 

Among  the  curious  specifications  on 
the  composition  and  history  of  the 
human  subject,  which  meet  us  in 
Theosophical  literature,  we  select  the 
following:  The  etheric  double  is  a 
precise  duplicate  of  the  dense  body, 
and  the  medium  through  which  the 
electrical  and  vital  currents  play.  It 
is  composed  of  four  ethers,  distin- 
guished by  different  degrees  of  fineness. 
Normally  the  etheric  double  is  sep- 
arated from  the  dense  body  only  at 
death,  but  occasionally  spiritualistic 
mediums  experience  at  least  a  partial 
separation  during  the  period  of  earthly 
life.  In  its  separate  state  the  etheric 
double  is  dissipated  after  a  brief  inter- 
val. The  astral  body  is  composed  of 
a  different  and  more  subtle  kind  of 
matter.  In  this  body  the  seven  sub- 
states  of  astral  matter  are  combined. 
It  travels  with  exceeding  rapidity,  and 
either    during    earthly    life    or    after 

77 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

may  show  itself  apart  from  the  physi- 
cal body.  To  one  who  is  clairvoyant 
the  manifestation  easily  occurs,  and  in 
case  of  one  who  is  not  it  is  possible 
by  a  greater  or  less  appropriation  of 
physical  matter  from  the  atmosphere 
for  the  astral  body  to  acquire  visi- 
bility. During  earthly  life  the  seven 
substates  of  astral  matter  are  inter- 
mingled, but  after  death  they  are 
sorted  into  concentric  shells,  the  densest 
being  outside.  These  shells  may  func- 
tion in  spiritualistic  seances.  They 
must  all  be  disintegrated  before  the  de- 
ceased person  can  pass  into  the  bliss- 
ful region  of  Devachan.  The  period 
of  disintegration,  longer  or  shorter 
according  to  the  preceding  record  of 
the  subject,  is  properly  characterized 
as  a  purgatorial  period.  To  the  region 
where  the  purgation  takes  place  is 
given  the  name  of  Kamaloka.  The 
elimination  of  the  astral  body  leaves 
the  person  with  the  mind-body,  which 
is   composed   of   more   subtle   matter 

78 


MAN  AND  HIS  DESTINY 

still,  taken  from  the  four  lower  levels 
of  Devachan,  and  disintegrating  when 
these  levels  have  been  passed.  It  is 
egg-shaped,  richly  colored,  and  with- 
out differentiation  of  the  senses.14 

The  life  in  Devachan,  as  Theos- 
ophists  call  their  heaven,  is  not  of 
strictly  fixed  duration,  but  is  said  to 
last  from  ten  to  fifteen  centuries.15 
The  measure  of  happiness  enjoyed  in 
Devachan  is  not  claimed  to  be  uni- 
form for  all  subjects,  but  Theosophical 
writers  are  quite  unanimous  in  the 
affirmation  that  no  pain,  sorrow,  or 
disappointment  can  enter  there.  "It 
is,"  we  are  told,  "a  specially  guarded 
part  of  the  mental  plane  whence  all 
sorrow  and  all  evil  are  excluded  by 
the  action  of  the  great  spiritual  intel- 
ligences who  superintend  human  evolu- 
tion."16 In  its  type  the  Devachanic 
life  is  purely  subjective,  though  it  is 

14  See  in  particular  Besant,  Man  and  Hi3  Bodies. 
15Blavatsky,  The  Key  to  Theosophy,  p.  144:  Sinnett,  Esoteric 
Buddhism,  p.  143;  Leadbeater,  Extracts  from  the  Vahan,  p.  36. 
18  Besant,  The  Ancient  Wisdom,  pp.  137,  138. 

79 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

far  from  being  recognized  as  such  by 
the  one  who  has  entered  into  it. 
"The  forms,  scenery,  etc.,  which  the 
consciousness  perceives  in  that  con- 
dition are  the  creatures  of  its  own 
mental  energies."17  There  results,  how- 
ever, a  gradual  exhaustion  of  force, 
passing  into  semi-consciousness  and 
ending  in  "birth  into  another  person- 
ality."18 It  is  in  this  reincarnate  state 
that  the  sinner  in  general  must  reap 
the  fruits  of  his  evil  deeds.  Only 
the  exceptional  criminal  is  deprived  of 
the  temporary  immunity  from  suffer- 
ings enjoyed  in  Devachan  and  is  made 
to  pay  in  Avitchi  the  penalty  of  sub- 
jective spiritual  misery  for  a  period.19 
In  spite  of  the  emphatic  description 
of  the  unalloyed  bliss  of  Devachan,  it 
would  appear  that  the  happy  state 
is   not   perfectly   guarded   against   an 


»  Keightley,  Extracts  from  the  Vahan,  p.  395;  Sinnett,  Esoteric 
Buddhism,  pp.  81,  82. 

»  Sinnett,  Ibid.,  p.  88. 

i»  Sinnett,  Esoteric  Buddhism,  p.  93;  Colville,  Studies  in  Theoe- 
opby,  p.  172. 

80 


MAN  AND  HIS  DESTINY 

element  of  unrest.  Even  there  arises 
the  desire  for  active  life,  the  thirst  for 
sentient  existence,  which  is  the  funda- 
mental cause  of  reincarnation,  as  of 
all  manifestation.20  This  is  the  inner 
ground  of  reincarnation  operative  in 
the  individual.  In  addition  there  is 
the  working  of  Karma,  that  is,  of  an 
unerring  law  of  retribution,  an  imper- 
sonal ever-active  principle  which  grips 
the  world  and  determines  both  the 
fact  and  the  conditions  of  rebirth. 
Until  his  score  has  been  paid  a  man 
must  be  reborn,  and  in  rebirth  be 
given  a  lot  correspondent  with  his 
antecedent  record.21 

The  doctrine  of  reincarnation  was 
taken  over  from  Hinduism  into  the 
fundamentals  of  Theosophy,  though  in 
the  transference  there  was  a  modifica- 
tion to  the  extent  of  rejecting  the  idea 
that  a  man  may  be  reborn  as  an 
animal.      The   borrowing   is   apparent 


10  Besant,  Reincarnation,  p.  37. 

31  Blavatsky,  The  Secret  Doctrine,  I.  634. 

81 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

not  only  from  the  content  of  the 
doctrine  as  set  forth  in  standard  writ- 
ings, but  also  from  the  fact  that  it 
was  first  taken  up  and  promulgated 
by  the  Theosophical  leaders  after  they 
had  gone  to  India.  In  Isis  Unveiled, 
which  was  written  in  America,  Madame 
Blavatsky  repudiated  reincarnation  as 
any  part  of  a  regular  economy,  and 
treated  it  as  emphatically  exceptional. 
"Reincarnation,"  she  wrote,  "that  is, 
the  appearance  of  the  same  individual, 
or,  rather,  of  the  astral  monad,  twice 
on  the  same  planet,  is  not  a  rule  of 
nature;  it  is  an  exception,  like  the 
teratological  phenomenon  of  a  two- 
headed  infant.  It  is  preceded  by  a 
violation  of  the  laws  of  harmony  of 
nature,  and  happens  only  when  the 
latter,  seeking  to  restore  its  disturbed 
equilibrium,  violently  throws  back  into 
earth-life  the  astral  monad  which  had 
been  tossed  out  of  the  circle  of  ne- 
cessity by  crime  or  accident."22     Nei- 

»  Iais  Unveiled,  I.  351,  352. 

82 


MAN  AND  HIS  DESTINY 

ther  Gautama  nor  Pythagoras,  she  de- 
clared, intended  to  teach  a  literal 
metempsychosis,  but  employed  the 
term  in  its  esoteric  sense  and  applied 
it  to  "the  purely  spiritual  peregrina- 
tions of  the  human  soul."23  In  the 
face  of  these  unequivocal  statements 
her  subsequent  attempt  to  explain 
away  her  denial  of  reincarnation24  can 
be  rated  only  as  perfectly  obvious  and 
perfectly  abortive  prevarication.  01- 
cott,  with  better  discretion,  as  well  as 
with  larger  honesty,  stood  by  the  facts, 
declaring  that  at  the  time  of  embark- 
ing for  India  (December  17,  1878), 
both  Madame  Blavatsky  and  himself 
thought  that  reincarnation  is  excep- 
tional, and  that  the  doctrine  was  not 
fully  launched  till  1881-82,  though  a 
bare  allusion  to  it  occurred  in  the 
Theosophist  for  October,  1879.  The 
problem  why  the  Mahatmas  permitted 
the  mistake  he  gave  up  as  insoluble.25 

»  Ibid.,  I.  289. 

M  The  Key  to  Theosophy,  pp.  187,  188. 
25  Old  Diary  Leaves,  pp.  283-289. 
83 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

From  repudiating  the  idea  of  reincar- 
nation, Theosophy  went  on  to  affirming 
it  in  most  generous  measure.  According 
to  its  pronouncement,  it  is  not  a  few 
times  only  that  the  individual  is  re- 
clothed  with  a  body.  "The  actual  normal 
number  of  incarnations  for  each  monad 
is  not  far  short  of  eight  hundred."26 

Since  monads,  or  souls,  are  ever  on 
hand  for  reincarnation,  the  demand 
for  the  creation,  emanation,  or  evolu- 
tion of  new  souls  is  evidently  modified 
quite  appreciably.  We  are  informed 
that  nothing  of  that  kind  has  occurred 
since  the  middle  of  the  fourth  race,27 
and  that  "the  total  number  of  human 
egos  included  in  our  evolution  is  in 
round  numbers  about  sixty  billions. 'm 
How  this  long-standing  numerical  fixity 
of  the  race  agrees  with  the  common 
historical  induction  as  to  the  pro- 
gressive increase  of  population  on  the 
earth    is    a    question    that    naturally 

26  Sinnett,  Esoteric  Buddhism,  p.  61. 

27  Besant,  The  Seven  Principles  of  Man,  p.  69. 
38  Keightley,  Extracts  from  the  Vahan,  p.  28. 

84 


MAN  AND  HIS  DESTINY 

arises.  We  have  not  observed  that 
this  question  has  been  satisfactorily 
answered.  Mrs.  Besant's  plea  that 
those  incarnated  at  any  time  constitute 
only  a  minor  portion  of  the  total 
number  of  souls  is  no  real  answer. 
Since  souls  are  reincarnated  after  pass- 
ing through  a  proper  round  of  experi- 
ences, or,  generally  speaking,  once  in 
fifteen  hundred  years,  a  reason  for  a 
change  of  proportion  between  the  in- 
carnated and  those  awaiting  incarna- 
tion is  not  apparent. 

Lack  of  recollection  of  a  previous 
life,  it  is  claimed,  is  not  an  objection 
to  the  fact  of  preexistence,  since  the 
organs  instrumental  to  reminiscence, 
which  were  operative  in  the  former 
stage  of  existence,  have  perished;  more- 
over, Buddhas  and  Initiates,  it  is 
averred,  do  remember  their  past  in- 
carnations, not  to  discuss  what  may 
be  possible  for  less  advanced  spirits.29 


*»Blavatsky,    The    Key   to   Theoaophy,    p.    162;    Sinnett,    The 
Growth  of  the  Soul,  pp.  54,  55. 

85 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

As  positive  grounds  for  belief  in 
reincarnation  such  facts  are  alleged 
as  the  appearance  of  great  diversities 
within  the  limits  of  a  given  family, 
infant  precocity,  exceptional  genius, 
and  seeming  discrepancy  between  pres- 
ent lot  and  desert. 

The  ideal  goal  toward  which  the 
series  of  incarnations  is  supposed  to 
lead  is  Nirvana.  However,  the  mean- 
ing attached  to  this  term  seems 
not  to  have  been  uniformly  the  same 
in  Theosophical  circles.  Madame  Bla- 
vatsky  is  free  to  employ  forms  of  de- 
scription which  imply  the  complete  sub- 
mergence or  negation  of  individuality. 
The  consummation  is  not  reached, 
she  tells  us,  "till  the  unit  is  merged 
in  the  all,  and  subject  and  object 
alike  vanish  in  the  absolute  negation 
of  the  Nirvanic  state."30  The  immor- 
tality of  an  entity  is  to  be  understood 
only  in  relation  to  its  cycle.  At  the 
end  of  that  it  is  "one  and  identical 

»  The  Secret  Doctrine,  I.  329,  330. 
86 


MAN  AND  HIS  DESTINY 

with  the  Universal  Spirit,  and  no 
longer  a  separate  entity/'31  On  the 
other  hand,  statements  occur  in  The- 
osophical  writings  which  are  designed 
to  convey  the  impression  that  the  indi- 
vidual does  not  so  much  suffer  extinc- 
tion as  gain  expansion  in  Nirvana.  It 
does  not  appear  that  anything  worth 
while  has  been  accomplished  toward 
clearing  away  Buddhistic  mist  on  this 
subject. 

Is  Nirvana  an  absolutely  final  goal, 
or  has  it  only  a  relative  finality? 
Explicit  testimony  on  this  point  is  not 
often  furnished.  But  if  Mrs.  Besant 
represents  the  prevailing  conviction,  the 
decision  is  for  relative  finality.  It  is 
her  plain  declaration  that  the  one  who 
has  attained  Nirvana  returns  to  cos- 
mic activity  in  a  new  cycle  of  mani- 
festation.32 As  much  may  possibly  be 
implied  in  the  declaration  of  Madame 
Blavatsky  that,  according  to  the  Brah- 


»>  The  Key  to  Theosophy,  p.  106. 

«  Death  and  After,  p.  G9;  Exposition  of  Theosophy,  pp.  22,  23. 

87 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

manical  and  esoteric  doctrine,  there  is 
an  endless  evolution  and  reinvolution 
(or  reabsorption)  of  the  cosmos.33  This 
at  least  suggests  that  what  is  in 
Nirvana  is  evolved  again.  If  Madame 
Blavatsky  meant  to  indorse  this  view, 
she  would  need  to  explain  how  the 
completely  vanished  individuals  of  her 
scheme  could  be  recovered.  On  the 
whole,  the  conclusion  is  warranted  that 
Theosophy  sets  forth  no  ultimate  goal 
for  men,  unless  it  be  in  the  complete 
cessation  of  personal  existence.  It  does 
not  offer  any  prospect  of  a  satisfactory 
escape  from  the  fearfully  drawn  out 
alternation  between  life  and  death, 
birth  and  dissolution,  which  has  rested 
like  a  nightmare  upon  the  soul  of 
India. 


33  The  Secret  Doctrine,  I.  148. 


SS 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  THEOSOPHIC  PRINCIPLE 
OF  AUTHORITY  TESTED 

Theosophists  claim  that  their  sys- 
tem is  a  reproduction  of  the  ancient 
Wisdom-Religion,  through  the  agency 
of  perfected  men  called  Mahatmas  or 
Adepts,  who  have  chosen  to  make  use 
of  the  Theosophical  Society  as  an 
instrument  of  communication.  That 
this  claim  is  fundamental  need  not  be 
argued  here.  In  a  preceding  chapter 
it  was  shown  that  the  existence  and 
effective  agency  of  the  Mahatmas  has 
been  a  very  vital  assumption  with 
Theosophical  writers,  and  that  it  is 
only  by  a  most  palpable  lapse  from 
self-consistency  that  they  can  bring 
these  matters  under  the  category  of 
the  indifferent  or  optional.  If  they 
have  not  been  favored  with  author- 

89 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

itative  instructors,  it  is  plainly  ridicu- 
lous for  them  to  put  forth  multiplied 
dogmatic  conclusions  which  are  quite 
beyond  the  domain  of  concrete  verifi- 
cation. Apart  from  the  plea  of  excep- 
tional instruction  they  have  not  the 
slightest  warrant  to  claim  for  the  mass 
of  their  propositions  any  better  char- 
acter than  that  of  disputable  con- 
jectures. It  is  quite  pertinent,  there- 
fore, to  enumerate  the  various  grounds 
for  radical  skepticism  as  to  the  as- 
sumed existence  and  agency  of  the 
Mahatmas,  and  we  proceed  at  once 
to  place  these  in  order. 

1.  The  primary  and  principal  witness, 
Madame  Blavatsky,  is  fundamentally 
discredited  by  her  demonstrated  ca- 
pability of  downright  falsifying.  This 
trait  is  conspicuously  exhibited  in  her 
exposition  of  her  relations  with  Spir- 
itualism. As  has  been  noticed,  it 
suited  her  at  a  time  when  Theosophy 
was  in  full  swing,  to  speak  of  Spiritual- 
ism in  very  disparaging  terms.     More 

90 


AUTHORITY  TESTED 

than  this,  she  specified  the  putting 
down  of  Spiritualism  as  one  of  the 
main  objects  of  the  Theosophical  move- 
ment/ and  declared  flatly  that  she 
never  was  a  Spiritualist.2  How  fla- 
grantly in  these  statements  she  has 
contradicted  herself  can  be  discovered 
by  reviewing  her  correspondence  with 
her  countryman,  A.  N.  Aksakoff.  In 
the  fall  of  1874  she  wrote:  "I  have 
now  been  a  Spiritualist  for  more  than 
ten  years,  and  now  all  my  life  is  de- 
voted to  the  doctrine.  I  am  struggling 
for  it  and  trying  to  consecrate  to  it 
every  moment  of  my  life."  In  Febru- 
ary, 1875,  she  declared,  "I  have  sacri- 
ficed myself  for  Spiritualism,  and  in 
defense  of  my  faith  and  the  truth  I 
am  ready  at  any  moment  to  lay  my 
head  on  the  block.  .  .  .  Now  the  spirits 
are  my  brothers  and  sisters,  my  father 
and    mother.      My    John    King    is    a 


i  Letter  to  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette,  April  26,  1884,1cited  by  Lillie, 
Madame  Blavatsky  and  Her  Theosophy,  p.  16. 

J  In  Light,  October  11,  1884,  cited  by  Leaf  in  Solovyoff's  Modern 
Priestess  of  Isis,  pp.  228,  229. 

91 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

sufficient  recompense  for  all,  he  is  a 
host  in  himself  to  me.7'  Later  in  the 
same  year  she  spoke  as  though  the 
Theosophical  Society,  which  was  being 
founded,  would  take  up  Spiritualism 
along  with  other  ingredients.  "We 
want,"  she  said,  "to  make  an  exper- 
imental comparison  between  Spiritual- 
ism and  the  magic  of  the  ancients  by 
following  literally  the  old  Cabbalas, 
both  Jewish  and  Christian."  In  De- 
cember, 1875,  she  remarked  of  Theos- 
ophy:  "It  is  the  same  Spiritualism 
but  under  another  name."3  So  by 
her  own  hand  Madame  Blavatsky 
convicted  herself  of  being  capable  of 
barefaced  falsehood.  Her  word,  ac- 
cordingly, makes  a  very  slender 
foundation  for  the  fact  of  intercom- 
munion with  an  extraordinary  class  of 
men  called  Mahatmas. 

2.  Madame  Blavatsky's  worth  as  a 
witness  is  very  much  qualified  by  the 


3  For  the  citations  see  Solovyoff,  A  Modern  Priestess  of  Isis, 
pp.  228-265. 

92 


AUTHORITY  TESTED 

evidence    that    she    was    capable    of 
playing  the  role  of  the  charlatan  and 
trickster.     Among  the  demonstrations 
which  she  afforded  of  this  capability, 
that    given    at    Adyar,     India,     was 
especially     notable.     At     this     place, 
which  was  made  the  headquarters  of 
the  Theosophists,   the   apartments   of 
Madame  Blavatsky  were  provided  with 
very  convenient  adjuncts  in  the  shape 
of  an  occult  room  with  a  shrine  or 
cupboard  so  placed  as  to  conceal  a 
hole  in  the  wall  and  furnished  with 
sliding    panels    in    the    back    through 
which,  when  the  doors  in  front  were 
closed,  letters  and  other  articles  could 
be  secretly  introduced.     These  pecu- 
liarities in  the  furnishing  of  the  house 
are  not  disputed  by  the  apologists  of 
Madame  Blavatsky.    They  claim  that 
they  were  made  after  her  departure 
to  Europe,  early  in  1884,  by  the  cus- 
todians of  the  house,   Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Coulomb,  who  were  prompted  to  the 
deed  by  selfish  and  unfriendly  motives. 

93 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

In  this  way  they  would  exculpate  their 
leader  from  the  charge  of  surrepti- 
tiously introducing  pretended  messages 
from  the  Mahatmas  into  the  shrine 
and  of  using  it  for  other  fictitious 
marvels.  But  this  apology  is  not  at 
all  convincing.  Besides  imputing  to  the 
Coulombs  an  incredible  stretch  of  sub- 
tle machination,  it  is  discredited  by 
the  fact  that,  in  the  absence  of  Madame 
Blavatsky,  a  zealous  adherent,  a  native 
by  the  name  of  Damodar,  held  the 
keys  to  the  occult  room  and  the  shrine. 
Moreover,  there  were  extant  some 
forty  letters  addressed  mainly  to  Mrs. 
Coulomb  and  containing  ample  proof 
that  the  striking  phenomena,  which 
were  so  potent  to  win  adherents  among 
the  Hindus,  were  matters  of  contriv- 
ance, both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Coulomb,  as 
employees  of  Madame  Blavatsky,  being 
used  as  coagents.  As  was  to  be 
expected,  an  attempt  was  made  to 
rebut  this  documentary  demonstration 
by  the  allegation  that  the  letters  were 

94 


AUTHORITY  TESTED 

in  whole  or  in  part  forged.     But  the 
attempt    must    be    pronounced    quite 
futile.      In   the   first   place,    the   con- 
tents of  the  documents  spoke  strongly 
for    their    genuineness.      "The   letters 
contained  scores  of  references  to  lead- 
ing Hindus  and   government  officials 
all  over  India,  with  details  of  what 
happened    when    Madame    Blavatsky 
was  in  their  houses  and  when  she  met 
them  casually.    No  forger  would  have 
dared  to  invent  such  details.     If  they 
had  been  forged,   a  few  personal  in- 
quiries would   at   once   have  exposed 
them."4    In  the  second  place,  a  careful 
investigation  added  a  strong  support 
to  the  impression  of  genuineness  made 
by  the  letters.    This  investigation  was 
made  at  the  instance  of  the  Society 
for  Psychical  Research.     As  its  repre- 
sentative R.  Hodgson  went  to  India 
near  the  end  of  1884,  and  gave  three 
months  to  a  painstaking  examination 
of    the   character    of    the    phenomena. 

*  Farquhar,  Modern  Religious  Movements  in  India,  p.  239. 

95 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

All  parties  more  nearly  concerned  were 
called  to  the  witness  stand,  including 
Madame  Blavatsky  and  Colonel  Olcott. 
One  or  another  of  the  witnesses  was 
discredited  by  cross-examination.  The 
Coulombs,  however,  were  not  of  this 
number.  It  was  found  impossible  to 
break  down  any  of  their  statements 
that  were  at  all  material,  and  where 
corroboration  was  in  the  nature  of 
the  case  possible  it  was  found  not  to 
be  lacking.  The  result  was  wholly  in 
favor  of  the  genuineness  of  the  damag- 
ing letters.5  In  the  third  place,  the 
handwriting  of  the  letters,  according 
to  the  judgment  of  competent  experts, 
was  that  of  Madame  Blavatsky.  Re- 
ferring to  this  point  eight  or  nine 
years  after  the  investigation  which  he 
had  conducted  in  India,  and  having 
before  him  the  best  that  Theosophical 
apologists  were  able  to  say,  Hodgson 
felt  authorized  to  declare:  "The  fact 


6  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  Vol.  III. 
pp.  201-400. 

96 


AUTHORITY  TESTED 

remains  that  in  the  opinion  of  the 
best  experts  obtainable  the  Blavatsky- 
Coulomb  documents  were  undoubtedly 
written  by  Madame  Blavatsky,  and  I 
know  of  no  expert  in  handwriting 
who  has  examined  the  letters  who  has 
expressed  any  different  opinion."6 

The  evidence  just  recounted  that 
Madame  Blavatsky,  in  the  attempt  to 
give  credence  to  the  existence  and 
agency  of  Mahatmas,  played  a  game 
of  deception  receives  somewhat  of  a 
supplement  in  the  testimony  of  So- 
lo vy  off.  This  Russian  gentleman  vis- 
ited her  almost  daily  for  two  months 
at  Paris,  and  also  had  frequent  inter- 
views with  her  at  Wurzburg.  In  the 
latter  place  he  detected  her  employ- 
ment of  trickery  for  the  production 
of  pretended  marvels,  and  succeeded 
in  eliciting  from  her  a  confession  on 
the  fictitious  character  of  the  phenom- 
ena to  which  she  had  been  resorting 

8  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  Vol.  IX. 
p.  146. 

97 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

as  a  means  of  propagandism.  The 
confession  was  indeed  quickly  with- 
drawn, having  been  made  without  any 
real  contrition.  Solovyoff  was  well 
assured  from  that  time  that  the  mar- 
velous performances  of  Madame  Bla- 
vatsky  could  be  reduced  to  a  small 
residuum.  'There  is,"  he  says,  "one 
thing  which  I  cannot  explain:  how  she 
produced  and  stopped  at  will  the 
various  raps  which  were  heard  at  a 
great  distance  all  round  her,  and  also 
the  strange  sounds  like  the  tinkling 
of  a  small  electrical  machine.  But 
with  this  manifestation  is  exhausted 
everything  in  her  phenomena  which  I 
am  unable  to  explain.  .  .  .  That  Ma- 
dame's  soft  hands,  with  their  supple 
pointed  ringers,  were  very  clever  in 
the  execution  of  rapid  movements,  I 
have  many  times  perceived.  She  had 
probably  taken  lessons  in  conjuring 
from  some  professor  of  white  magic."7 
The  testimony  of  Olcott  in  favor  of 

7  A  Modern  Priestesa  of  Isis,  pp.  146ff.,  209,  210. 
98 


AUTHORITY  TESTED 

multiplied  wonders  by  the  hands  of 
Madame  Blavatsky  can  indeed  be 
cited.  But  here  the  peculiarity  of  the 
witness  nullifies  the  worth  of  the 
evidence.  Hodgson  found  him  so  cred- 
ulous and  uncritical,  so  destitute  of 
even  ordinary  powers  of  observation, 
that  he  felt  compelled  to  treat  his 
testimony  as  practically  worthless ;  and 
Madame  Blavatsky  herself  was  free 
to  speak  of  the  weakness  of  Olcott, 
and  even  styled  him  "a  psychologized 
baby."8 

The  alleged  communications  of  the 
Mahatmas  through  W.  Q.  Judge  are 
quite  unworthy  of  any  serious  con- 
sideration. Paltry  in  matter,  subor- 
dinated to  the  personal  interests  of 
Judge,  and  produced  under  conditions 
that  in  no  wise  call  for  the  supposition 
that  anything  more  than  common  mun- 
dane agency  was  back  of  them,  they 
must    be    rated    by    an    unprejudiced 

8  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  Vol.  III. 
pp.  210,  311. 

99 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

mind  as  manifest  fictions.  Olcott  at- 
tached to  them  this  character,  and 
Mrs.  Besant  was  convinced  that  they 
were  written  by  Judge,  though  she 
admitted  for  prudential  reasons  that  he 
may  have  gotten  suggestions  from 
the  Mahatmas.9 

So  the  Theosophical  claim  respecting 
the  existence  and  agency  of  Mahatmas 
is  shadowed  by  substantial  proof  of 
fraudulent  pretense  on  the  part  of  its 
leading  exponents. 

3.  The  supposition  that  the  Mahat- 
mas, as  a  high  order  of  intelligences, 
were  a  principal  factor  in  the  com- 
position of  the  standard  treatises  of 
Theosophy  is  disproved  by  plain  con- 
tradictions in  the  teachings  of  those 
treatises,  by  abundant  evidence  that 
their  materials  were  drawn  mostly  from 
comparatively  modern  writings,  and  by 
peculiarities  in  their  style. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  note  was 
taken  of  two  glaring  contradictions  in 

8  See  in  particular  Garrett,  Ieis  Very  Much  Unveiled. 
100 


AUTHORITY  TESTED 

the  teaching  of  Madame  Blavatsky — 
namely,  those  relating  to  the  number 
of  components  in  man  and  to  the 
doctrine  of  reincarnation.  How  hap- 
pened it  that  the  guardian  Mahatmas, 
who  are  represented  as  virtually  the 
authors  of  the  treatises  in  which  the 
contradictions  occur,  permitted  their 
instruments  to  pen  statements  so  dia- 
metrically opposed  to  one  another? 
Plainly  we  have  a  token  here  of  the 
mythical  character  of  these  beings. 

That  the  supervisory  function  of  the 
Mahatmas  was  very  much  of  a  nullity 
is  also  indicated  by  the  palpable  errors 
and  plagiarisms  discoverable  in  the 
standard  treatises.  Referring  to  Isis 
Unveiled  a  well-furnished  critic  re- 
marks: "The  book  contains  innumer- 
able errors,  many  of  them  of  the  most 
rudimentary  type.  The  commonest 
Sanskrit  words  are  misspelt;  the  Bud- 
dhist doctrine  of  transmigration  is 
grossly  misrepresented;  and  the  Bhag- 

avadgita  is  confused  with  the  Bhag- 
101 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

avata  Purana."10     On  the  sources  from 
which    Madame   Blavatsky   drew   her 
materials,  mostly  without  acknowledg- 
ment, W.  E.  Coleman,  who  seems  to 
have  investigated  the  subject  to  the 
very  foundations,  makes  illuminating 
remarks.    "The  books  utilized  in  com- 
piling Isis,"  he  says,  "were  nearly  all 
current  nineteenth-century  literature. 
Only  one  of  the  old  and  rare  books 
named  and  quoted  from  was  in  Ma- 
dame   Blavatsky's    possession — Henry 
More's  Immortality  of  the  Soul,  pub- 
lished in  the  seventeenth  century.    One 
or  two  others  dated  from  the  early 
part  of  the  present  century;  and  all 
the  rest  pertained  to  the  middle  and 
latter     part     of     this     century.     Our 
author  made  great  pretensions  to  Cab- 
balistic learning;  but  every  quotation 
from  and  every  allusion  to  the  Cabbala, 
in  Isis  and  all  her  later  works,  were 
copied  second-hand  from  certain  books 
containing  scattered   quotations  from 

a0  Farquhar,  Modern  Religious  Movements  in  India,  p.  225. 
102 


AUTHORITY  TESTED 

Cabbalistic  writings.  Not  a  line  of 
the  quotations  in  Isis  from  the  old 
time  mystics,  Paracelsus,  Van  Hel- 
mont,  Cardan,  Robert  Fludd,  Phila- 
lethes,  Gaffarel,  and  others  was  taken 
from  the  original  works;  the  whole  of 
them  are  copied  from  other  books 
containing  scattered  quotations  from 
those  writers.  The  same  thing  occurs 
with  her  quotations  from  Josephus, 
Philo,  and  the  Church  Fathers.  .  .  .  The 
Secret  Doctrine,  published  in  1888,  is 
of  a  piece  with  Isis.  It  is  permeated 
with  plagiarisms,  and  is  in  all  its 
parts  a  rehash  of  other  books.  Two 
books  very  largely  form  the  basis  of 
this  work — Wilson's  translation  of  the 
Vishnu  Purana  and  Professor  Win- 
chell's  World  Life.  The  Secret  Doc- 
trine is  saturated  with  Hinduism  and 
with  Sanskrit  terminology,  and  the 
bulk  of  this  was  copied  from  Wilson's 
Vishnu  Purana."11 

Letters  purporting  to  come  from  the 

11  Cited  in  Solovyoff's  A  Modern  Priestess  of  Isis,  Appendix. 
103 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

Mahatma  Koot  Hoomi,  and  published 
in  Sinnett's  Occult  World  and  Esoteric 
Buddhism,  contained  plagiarized  mat- 
ter. One  of  them,  with  a  well-nigh 
incredible  audacity,  incorporated  al- 
most verbatim  a  long  passage  from  a 
recently  delivered  address  of  H.  Kiddle, 
of  New  York.12  Referring  to  these 
letters,  as  contained  in  Esoteric  Bud- 
dhism, Coleman  writes:  "I  find  in 
them  overwhelming  evidence  that  all 
of  them  wTere  written  by  Madame 
Blavatsky.  ...  I  have  traced  to  its 
source  each  quotation  from  the  Bud- 
dhist scriptures  in  the  letters,  and  they 
were  all  copied  from  current  English 
translations,  including  even  the  notes 
and  explanations  of  the  English  trans- 
lators. .  .  .  The  writer  of  these  letters 
was  an  ignoramus  in  Sanskrit  and 
Tibetan;  and  the  mistakes  and  blun- 
ders in  them,  in  these  languages,  are 
in  exact  accordance  with  the  known 
ignorance  of  Madame  Blavatsky  there- 

i   u  Farquhar,  Modern  Religious  Movements  in  India,  pp.  231,  232 

104 


AUTHORITY  TESTED 

anent.  Esoteric  Buddhism,  like  all 
of  Madame  Blavatsky's  works,  was 
based  upon  wholesale  plagiarism  and 
ignorance."13 

What  further  demonstration  could  be 
desired  that  the  Mahatmas,  as  a  su- 
perior order  of  intelligences,  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  production  of 
the  standard  writings  of  Theosophy? 
These  loose,  inaccurate,  plagiarizing 
compilations  are  fully  accounted  for 
entirely  apart  from  any  reference  to 
transcendent  auxiliaries.  No  doubt 
they  exhibit  a  considerable  amount  of 
ingenuity  and  acumen;  but  that  much 
can  be  credited  to  Madame  Blavatsky 
together  with  no  mean  capacity  for 
industrious  application. 

4.  The  enlargement  of  acquaintance 
with  Tibet  in  recent  years  strongly 
confirms  the  mythical  character  of  the 
Mahatmas,  who  are  reputed  to  have 
made  that  land  their  headquarters  and 
to  have  gathered  there  all-comprehend- 

«  Cited  in  Solovyoff's  book,  pp.  363,  364. 
105 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

ing  libraries.  The  religion  of  the 
country  gives  no  evidence  that  the 
people  were  favored  with  the  presence 
of  exceptionally  endowed  instructors. 
"Primitive  Lamaism,"  says  Waddell, 
"may  be  defined  as  a  priestly  mixture 
of  Sivaite  mysticism,  magic,  and  Indo- 
Tibetan  demonolatry,  overlaid  by  a 
thin  varnish  of  Mahay  ana  Buddhism. 
And  to  the  present  day  Lamaism 
still  retains  this  character."14  "The 
Lamas,"  as  Waddell  also  states  on  the 
basis  of  ample  direct  investigation, 
"do  not  know  anything  about  those 
spiritual  mediums — the  Mahatmas — 
which  the  Theosophists  place  in  Tibet, 
and  give  an  important  place  in  Lamaist 
mysticism.  The  mysticism  of  the  La- 
mas is  a  charlatanism  of  a  mean 
necromantic  order."15 

The  testimony  of  other  recent  ex- 
plorers is  fully  in  line  with  that  of 
Waddell.      As    Farquhar   says:    "The 

14  The  Buddhism  of  Tibet  or  Lamaism,  1895,  p.  30. 
lfc  The  Buddhism  of  Tibet,  pp.  128,  129. 
106 


AUTHORITY  TESTED 

British  expedition  sent  by  Lord  Curzon 
actually  went  to  Lhassa,  so  that  Tibet 
is  now  well  known.  Two  of  the  most 
honored  Hindu  scholars  in  Calcutta 
have  wandered  all  over  the  hills  within 
British  territory,  visiting  monasteries 
and  libraries.  They  have  brought 
many  manuscripts  both  Sanskrit  and 
Tibetan  to  Calcutta.  How  is  it  that 
there  is  not  a  scrap  of  corroboration  of 
Madame  Blavatsky's  wonderful  story? 
No  one  knows  anything  of  the  existence 
of  the  Masters,  their  lodge,  or  the 
libraries."16 

When  Madame  Blavatsky  wrote, 
Tibet  was  a  land  of  mystery,  and  she 
naturally  felt  safe  in  locating  her 
wonderful  copartners,  with  their  un- 
paralleled literary  accumulations,  in 
that  country.  But  history  has  un- 
kindly lifted  the  veil,  and  the  favorite 
retreat  of  the  Mahatmas  is  found  to 
be  as  empty  of  all  tokens  of  their 
presence  as  is  any  other  region. 

»  Modern  Religious  Movements  in  India,  pp.  447,  448. 

107 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

5.  Theosophic  teaching  respecting  the 
measureless  stretch  of  the  wisdom,  or 
secret  traditional  knowledge,  possessed 
by  the  Mahatmas,  is  burdened  with 
incredible  implications.  These  per- 
fected men,  it  is  claimed,  have,  as  a 
body,  known  for  ages  all  that  is  worth 
knowing.  All  along  the  Alpha  and 
Omega  of  universal  science  have  been 
their  secure  property.  How  happens 
it  that  the  world  has  received  no 
discoverable  benefit  from  their  marvel- 
ous equipment?  Why  have  they  done 
nothing  to  heal  the  manifold  woes  of 
mankind?  An  ordinary  scientist,  who 
has  discovered  an  effective  remedy 
for  a  destructive  disease  or  plague 
would  be  rated  as  somewhat  of  a  mon- 
strosity if  he  should  make  a  secret  of 
his  discovery.  How,  then,  have  these 
mighty  Masters  managed  so  to  hide 
their  knowledge  that  no  practical  ben- 
efit should  accrue  from  it  to  a  suffering 
humanity?  The  one  credible  answer 
is  that  they  have  done  nothing  be- 

108 


AUTHORITY  TESTED 

cause  they  have  no  existence  outside 
of  Theosophical  imagination.  In  so- 
called  esoteric  systems  generally  pre- 
tense is  likely  greatly  to  overlap  reality. 
The  distinction  of  the  esoteric  wisdom 
of  the  Mahatmas  is  that  it  seems  to 
be  wholly  a  pretense. 

6.  The  skepticism  which  Theoso- 
phists  have  applied  to  spiritualistic 
phenomena  might  with  entire  propriety 
be  applied  to  reputed  apparitions  and 
performances  of  the  Mahatmas.  If  the 
spiritualistic  mediums,  instead  of  trans- 
acting with  the  real  personalities  of 
the  dead,  are  deceived  by  a  miserable 
astral  shell,  what  guarantee  is  there 
that  Theosophists,  in  so  far  as  they 
actually  suppose  themselves  to  have 
converse  with  Mahatmas,  are  not 
tricked  by  some  wretched  counterfeit 
of  the  noble  personalities  imagined  to 
be  making  visitations?  Doubtless  the 
astral  shell  is  as  imaginary  as  anything 
else;  but  if  a  thing  of  that  kind  can 
be  thrown  up  to  the  Spiritualist,  there 

109 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

is  no  apparent  reason  why  something 
equivalent  may  not  be  thrown  up  to 
the  Theosophist.  As  a  source  of  au- 
thentic information  John  King  in  no 
wise  needs  to  be  placed  below  the 
Mahatmas  Koot  Hoomi  and  Morya 
who  superseded  him  in  the  recognition 
of  Madame  Blavatsky. 

The  Theosophical  basis  of  authority 
is  a  congenial  subject  for  satire.  But 
we  have  no  inclination  to  resort  to 
that  expedient.  We  content  ourselves 
with  the  sober  induction  that  the 
claim  respecting  the  existence  and 
agency  of  Mahatmas  is  quite  as  desti- 
tute of  foundation  as  is  any  fiction 
that  was  ever  promulgated. 


no 


CHAPTER  IX 

COMMENTS  ON  PROMINENT 

FEATURES  OF  THE  THE- 

OSOPHICAL  SYSTEM 

Mrs.  Besant  has  been  quoted  as 
saying:  "If  there  are  no  Masters,  then 
the  Theosophical  Society  is  an  ab- 
surdity." That  there  are  no  Masters 
in  her  sense  we  think  has  been  shown 
with  a  fair  degree  of  conclusiveness  in 
the  preceding  chapter.  The  inference 
follows  then,  on  the  admitted  basis, 
that  any  further  consideration  of  the 
claims  of  Theosophy  can  fitly  be  spared. 
It  may  not  be,  however,  quite  super- 
fluous to  indicate  in  a  very  brief  and 
summary  way  some  of  the  weaknesses 
and  incredibilities  of  the  Theosophical 
system. 

One  of  the  most  obvious  exposures 

to  criticism,  on  the  part  of  that  sys- 
111 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

tern,  lies  in  its  emphatic  preference  for 
antique  mythology  and  its  wholesale 
appropriation  of  the  dreams  and  fancies 
which  have  gained  record  in  that 
domain.  The  primacy  accorded  to  the 
moon  over  the  earth  is  only  a  more 
striking  instance  of  this  abnormal  pref- 
erence. What  but  the  fact  that  in 
antique  fancy  the  moon  was  made  the 
seat  of  a  deity  vying  in  practical 
importance  with  the  sun-god,  furnished 
the  basis  of  the  Theosophical  thesis 
that  the  moon  is  the  parent  of  the 
earth,  and  the  source  in  perpetuity 
of  life  potencies  which  work  effectually 
upon  the  latter?  The  verdict  of  sci- 
ence on  this  subject  is  thrown  con- 
temptuously aside  because  it  conflicts 
with  mythological  lore.  This  may  be 
a  maximum  instance,  but  it  is  not  a 
little  typical.  To  this  mythological 
basis  Theosophy  adds  a  scholastic, 
formulating  bent  and  an  intemperate 
borrowing   from    Hindu    speculations. 

Now,  these  speculations,  by  whatever 
112 


COMMENTS 

degree  of  subtlety  some  of  them  may 
be  characterized,  are  very  much  in 
need  of  a  title  to  legitimacy.  Accord- 
ingly, even  if  we  suppose  the  The- 
osophical  version  of  them  to  be  cor- 
rect, we  are  not  able  to  discover  for 
Theosophy  any  substantial  ground. 
It  rests  on  mythological  fancies  and 
certain  adventurous  speculations  of 
Oriental  minds.  Of  real  verification  of 
its  pretentious  system  it  affords  not 
a  shred. 

As  an  outcome  of  its  infatuated 
preference  for  antique  mythology  and 
Oriental  speculation,  Theosophy  grav- 
itates into  an  unfair  treatment  of  the 
Bible.  As  has  been  noticed,  not  all 
of  its  representatives  transgress  in 
equal  measure  in  this  matter,  but  in 
general  they  transgress,  and  the  most 
authoritative  of  all  in  the  highest  de- 
gree. It  is  simply  venom,  reckless  of 
all  truth  and  sobriety,  which  Madame 
Blavatsky  shows  when  she  speaks  of 
the  Israelitish  Scriptures  as  a  relatively 

113 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

degraded  version  of  the  Wisdom-Re- 
ligion, and  declares  that  the  Pentateuch 
from  beginning  to  end  is  an  apotheosis 
of  phallicism. 

A  second  ground  for  criticism  of 
Theosophy  is  its  characteristic  predi- 
lection for  the  occult  and  the  magical. 
It  was  generated  in  the  atmosphere 
of  spiritualistic  phenomena.  The  com- 
munications assumed  to  be  derived 
from  the  Mahatmas  were  but  a  refine- 
ment on  the  messages  transmitted 
through  mediums,  and  fulfilled  a  like 
office  in  gratifying  an  appetite  for 
the  marvelous.  The  scathing  exposure 
which  followed  the  investigation  of 
the  Society  for  Psychical  Research 
abridged  not  a  little  the  disposition 
to  exploit  the  favorite  phenomena,  but 
it  did  not  eliminate  the  predilection 
for  the  occult  and  the  magical.  Mrs. 
Besant  gave  a  token  that  the  given 
predilection  was  still  operative  in  the 
trend  of  her  thinking  when  she  justi- 
fied the  continued  and  general  use  of 

114 


COMMENTS 

the  Latin  language  in  the  services  of 
the  church  on  the  ground  that  the 
Latin  words  are  specially  efficacious 
to  set  up  certain  orders  of  vibrations 
that  are  needed  in  the  invisible  worlds.1 
To  give  such  prominence  to  the  mag- 
ical is  equivalent,  of  course,  to  a 
relative  retrenchment  of  the  primacy 
of  the  rational  and  the  moral. 

Theosophy  is  furthermore  subject  to 
challenge  on  the  score  of  contradic- 
tions that  reach  to  the  substance  of 
teaching.  In  enumerating  conspicuous 
instances  of  these  we  repeat  in  part 
what  has  already  been  said.  It  was 
noticed  that  Madame  Blavatsky  in  a 
work  assumed  to  have  been  written 
under  the  supervision  of  the  Mahatmas 
made  man's  nature  trinal  rather  than 
septenary,  and  pronounced  reincarna- 
tion a  thoroughly  exceptional  experi- 
ence, whereas  in  her  later  teaching, 
as  in  that  of  her  copartners,  nothing 
is  more  characteristic  than  the  assump- 

«  Esoteric  Christianity,  p.  337. 

115 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

tion  of  man's  septenary  nature  and 
destination  to  a  prolonged  series  of 
incarnations.  Another  contradiction 
appears  in  the  exaltation  of  Theosophy 
as  the  effective  safeguard  against  ma- 
terialism, while  yet  in  its  general 
theory  of  being  it  compromises  the 
primacy  of  spirit  over  matter,  and  in 
its  psychology  indulges  in  multiplied 
representations  that  vie  with  the  most 
ultra  materialistic  propositions  that 
were  ever  formulated.  A  further  con- 
tradiction is  seen  in  the  doctrine  of 
a  relationless  Absolute  coupled  with 
the  declaration  that  all  that  is  emanates 
from  the  Absolute,  it  being  quite 
apparent  that  this  declaration  puts  the 
Absolute  in  the  relation  of  source  to 
product.  Still  another  contradiction 
meets  us  in  the  assumption  of  the 
invincible  unchanging  working  of  im- 
personal law,  taken  in  its  utter  contrast 
with  the  assumption  that  no  pain, 
sorrow,  or  distress  can  reach  those 
who    have    entered    into    Devachan. 

116 


COMMENTS 

Now,  the  subjects  of  Devachan  are 
pictured  as  so  loaded  down  with  un- 
paid obligations,  so  soiled  by  the 
transgressions  committed  in  previous 
lives,  that  they  must  undergo  repeated 
incarnations  in  order  to  pay  off  their 
score  and  be  purged  from  their  stains. 
What,  then,  secures  that  in  Devachan 
they  enjoy  unalloyed  bliss  and  are 
inaccessible  to  any  ground  or  occasion 
of  disquietude?  Plainly,  this  result 
presumes  upon  a  suspension  of  the 
irreversible  irresistible  law  of  retribu- 
tion, and  opens  the  door  to  postulating 
the  intervention  of  the  personal  agency 
to  which  that  law  is  understood  not 
to  be  amenable.  Mrs.  Besant  virtually 
confesses  as  much  when  she  ascribes 
the  marvelous  immunity  from  suffering 
enjoyed  by  the  denizens  of  Devachan 
to  "the  great  spiritual  intelligences  who 
superintend  human  evolution."2  This 
is  equivalent  to  saying  that  personal 
agency  annuls  the  operation  of  Karma 

*  The  Ancient  Wisdom,  pp.  137,  138. 
117 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

or  impersonal  law  for  long  periods  in 
the  career  of  every  individual.  Con- 
tradictions, like  these,  touching  not 
superficial  but  fundamental  matters, 
leave  the  Theosophical  claim  to  author- 
ity in  an  exceedingly  bad  plight. 

A  very  serious  objection  lies  against 
Theosophy  in  so  far  as  it  is  a  blend 
of  pantheism  and  polytheism.  As  has 
been  indicated,  it  is  avowedly  and 
radically  pantheistic.  The  ascription 
of  personality  to  God  it  denounces  as 
a  belittling  anthropomorphism.  In 
this  view  Madame  Blavatsky  stig- 
matizes the  God  of  the  monotheistic 
religions  as  a  blasphemous  caricature. 
Her  assumption  is  that  suitable  great- 
ness can  be  attributed  to  Deity  only 
by  making  him  impersonal.  That 
assumption  is  not  unusual  with  panthe- 
ists. It  is  quite  destitute,  however, 
of  substantial  basis.  The  endowments 
of  personality — self-consciousness,  in- 
telligence, will,  and  ethical  attributes 
— are   the    highest   that    the   human 

118 


COMMENTS 

mind  can  conceive.  To  carry  these 
up  to  an  infinite  or  perfect  scale  and 
ascribe  them  to  God  is  to  dignify  the 
thought  of  him  to  the  utmost.  To 
rob  him  of  them,  and  to  predicate 
impersonality  in  the  interest  of  his 
greatness,  is  a  self-defeating  procedure. 
Inevitably  the  God  despoiled  of  the 
highest  known  categories,  instead  of 
being  raised  to  the  supra-personal,  is 
thrust  down  to  the  plane  of  the 
infra-personal. 

As  respects  the  polytheistic  phase 
which  Theosophists  have  incorporated 
into  their  system,  a  sufficient  account 
for  our  purpose  has  been  given  in  the 
preceding  pages.  We  only  remark 
here  on  its  singular  barrenness.  The 
subordinate  gods  whom  they  recognize 
are  distant  and  ghostly  figures  wholly 
destitute  of  any  power  of  appeal. 
They  may  afford  some  compensation 
for  the  awful  blank  resulting  from  the 
assumption  of  an  impersonal  Deity 
with  whom  a  vital  communion  is  out 

119 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

of  question;  but  that  they  can  satisfy 
the  yearnings  of  normal  human  beings 
in  any  considerable  degree  strikes  us 
as  quite  inconceivable. 

In  its  cosmology  and  anthropology 
Theosophy  is  chargeable  with  running 
into  a  fantastic  and  gratuitous  com- 
plexity. No  other  description  befits 
its  assumption  that  the  earth  is  one 
in  a  chain  of  seven  planets  the  most 
of  which  are  perpetually  invisible, 
and  that  the  solar  system  contains 
seven  such  chains.  In  like  manner  no 
other  description  befits  the  assump- 
tion that  a  planetary  orb  is  the  seat 
of  seven  races,  each  of  which  con- 
tains seven  subdivisions,  and  each  sub- 
division seven  branch  races,  through 
each  of  which  the  human  subject 
must  pass  on  his  fated  pilgrimage. 
With  equal  justice  the  given  descrip- 
tion applies  to  the  doctrine  that  man 
is  made  up  of  seven  constituents, 
several    of    which    are    subjected    to 

progressive  dissipation  between  incar- 
120 


COMMENTS 

nations,  the  astral  body,  for  instance, 
being  described  as  seven  concentric 
rings  which  are  evaporated  one  after 
another,  until  the  mind  body  is  reached 
and  consigned  to  a  similar  process. 
The  scheme  is  so  extravagantly  com- 
plex that  it  is  a  little  difficult  to  im- 
agine why  it  was  concocted.  Very 
likely  the  idea  of  the  special  significance 
of  the  number  seven  supplied  the 
initial  spur  to  the  construction.  That 
it  can  be  accounted  as  any  better 
than  a  mere  whimsey  no  one  can 
believe  who  is  not  ready  to  accept 
the  theory  of  authoritative  communica- 
tions from  Mahatmas;  and  to  resort 
to  that  basis  of  belief  would  be  like 
accepting  one  incredibility  on  the 
ground  of  a  still  greater  incredibility. 

It  remains  to  comment  on  the 
Theosophical  doctrine  of  reincarna- 
tion. The  basis  for  the  doctrine  in 
any  form  is  exceedingly  tenuous.  The 
claim  of  isolated  individuals  to  have 

some  recollection  of  a  former  life  is 
121 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

not  adapted  to  carry  conviction  in 
face  of  the  substantially  universal  lack 
of  any  such  recollection.  Instances 
of  infant  precocity  may  be  explained 
by  some  peculiarity  of  the  brain  or 
of  the  sense  organs  or  of  the  two  in 
combination,  and  a  like  explanation 
applies  to  examples  of  a  high  order 
of  genius  in  the  mature.  Inequalities 
in  lot  may  be  attributed  to  the  work- 
ing of  a  general  system  of  law  upon 
unequal  conditions;  and  in  any  case 
the  judgment  that  those  who  suffer 
in  large  measure  may  be  recompensed 
further  on  is  decidedly  more  eligible 
than  the  harsh  verdict  that  their  suf- 
ferings are  proof  positive  that  they 
are  specially  ill-deserving  and  are  only 
reaping  what  they  have  sown  in  a 
previous  incarnation.  Every  experi- 
enced and  reflecting  person  knows  of 
concrete  instances  where  the  applica- 
tion of  such  a  verdict  seems  nothing 
better  than  inhuman  and  slanderous 
accusation. 

122 


COMMENTS 

Even  if  a  degree  of  tolerance  could 
be  accorded  to  the  theory  of  rein- 
carnation, it  by  no  means  follows  that 
it  could  be  approved  in  the  mode  and 
measure  in  which  it  is  taught  by  Theos- 
ophjr.  Taken  in  the  sense  of  Madame 
Blavatsky,  Mrs.  Besant,  Judge,  Sin- 
nett,  and  others,  it  is  an  incredible 
theory.  As  has  been  noticed,  it  as- 
sumes that  the  number  of  human  souls 
or  monads  was  fixed  ages  ago,  and  so 
collides  with  the  well-grounded  induc- 
tion as  to  the  progressive  increase  of 
the  population.  Again,  it  presumes 
upon  an  economy  singularly  wasteful 
and  abortive  in  its  very  conditions. 
Since,  as  a  rule,  the  human  subject 
retains  no  recollection  of  previous  in- 
carnations, he  is  robbed  of  the  oppor- 
tunity to  learn  by  experience,  and  is 
sent  blindfolded  through  a  succession 
of  rounds  that  is  staggering  to  the 
imagination  to  contemplate.  Plainly, 
to  accept  the  existence  of  such  an 
economy  is  to  exclude  the  belief  that 

123 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

wisdom  controls  the  universe.  Once 
more  the  Theosophical  theory  involves 
an  element  of  unfounded  optimism. 
Why  should  it  be  assumed  that  the 
blindfolded  pilgrim  will  sooner  or  later 
reach  Nirvana?  Unwarned  and  un- 
guided  by  a  knowledge  of  his  past 
experience,  he  is  evidently  exposed  to 
the  liability  of  adding  error  to  error, 
and  so  of  increasing  with  each  new 
incarnation  the  sum  of  an  adverse 
karma.  If  in  no  case  a  man  contin- 
uously travels  in  the  opposite  direction 
from  Nirvana,  it  must  be  because  a 
gracious  personal  agency  intervenes  in 
his  behalf.  But  to  admit  this  inter- 
vention is  contradictory  to  the  The- 
osophic  maxim  on  the  remorseless  rule 
of  impersonal  law. 

A  degree  of  credit  has  sometimes 
been  accorded  to  Theosophy  as  fos- 
tering a  more  sympathetic  attitude 
toward  the  ethnic  religions  than  was 
formerly  maintained  by  evangelical 
Christianity.     Were  substantial  proof 

124 


COMMENTS 

afforded  of  the  alleged  fact,  we  should 
be  glad  to  award  to  the  pretentious 
cult  this  much  of  credit.  It  is  our 
conviction,  however,  that  the  more 
sympathetic  attitude  is  to  be  attributed 
to  a  broader  and  more  diligent  study 
of  the  ethnic  systems,  and  is  due  in 
very  slight  degree,  if  at  all,  to  Theos- 
ophy.  The  most  that  it  can  claim 
with  good  warrant  is  to  have  given 
forth,  at  second-hand,  some  of  the 
truths  of  the  world's  leading  religions. 
Unhappily,  it  has  overtopped  these 
truths  by  colossal  errors  and  fictions. 


125 


PART  II 
NEW  THOUGHT 


CHAPTER  I 

GENERAL  SKETCH 

While  the  New  Thought  movement 
is  not  without  pronounced  character- 
istics, it  has  no  one  oracle  or  text- 
book, and  is  not  strictly  uniform  in 
tone  and  content.  The  period  which 
it  has  covered  is  substantially  the 
same  as  that  of  Christian  Science  so 
called.  One  of  the  prominent  sources 
of  the  latter  was  also  a  source  of  the 
former.  In  spite  of  the  denials  of 
Mrs.  Eddy,  it  is  historically  demon- 
strated that  she  was  greatly  indebted 
to  P.  P.  Quimby  of  Portland,  Maine, 
for  her  religio-medical  scheme.  The 
same  genial  exponent  of  mental  heal- 
ing was  one  of  the  effective  antecedents 
of  New  Thought.  This  has  been 
acknowledged  in  these  terms  by  a 
leading     representative:     "The     New 

129 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

Thought  movement  had  as  its  first 
great  apostle  P.  P.  Quimby,  of  Port- 
land, Maine,  and  later  Julius  A. 
Dresser,  of  Boston,  and  Dr.  W.  F. 
Evans.  Dr.  Dresser  taught  and  prac- 
ticed mental  healing,  and  wrote  but 
little.  Dr.  Evans  wrote  a  number 
of  books,  the  most  important  being 
'Primitive  Mind  Cure'  and  'Esoteric 
Christianity/  m  Though  deriving  its 
initial  impulse  from  Quimby,  the 
New  Thought  movement  has  prob- 
ably drawn  quite  as  largely  from 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  as  from  him. 
Emerson's  pages  are  quite  often  cited 
by  New  Thought  writers,  and  one  of 
them  describes  him  as  "the  greatest 
intuitive  mind  of  modern  times,  who 
instinctively  saw  and  felt  the  oneness 
and  interrelation  of  all  things."2  A 
third  antecedent  has  sometimes  been 
specified  as  Hindu  thinking.  This 
much  at  least  is  clear:  some  strains  in 


i  C.  B.  Patterson,  The  Will  to  Be  Well,  p.  10. 
2  Henry  Wood,  Studies  in  the  Thought  World,  p.  201. 
130 


GENERAL  SKETCH 

the  system  under  review  are  anal- 
ogous to  certain  phases  of  Hindu 
speculation,  though  it  is  to  be  ob- 
served that  any  such  formal  exaltation 
of  Hindu  philosophy  and  theology  as 
is  characteristic  of  Theosophy  does 
not  appear  in  New  Thought  literature. 

Among  conspicuous  representatives 
in  recent  years  Horatio  W.  Dresser, 
son  of  Julius  A.  Dresser,  may  be 
numbered.  But  it  is  necessary  to  add 
a  qualification.  In  some  of  his  books, 
especially  the  latest,  he  appears  quite 
as  much  the  critic  as  the  advocate  of 
New  Thought.  Among  thoroughgoing 
advocates  we  have  Charles  B.  Patter- 
son, Henry  Wood,  Ralph  W.  Trine, 
Charles  B.  Newcomb,  and  Abel  L. 
Allen. 

A  very  natural  inquiry  concerns  the 
attitude  of  these  writers  toward  the 
modern  cults  which  have  been  so 
ambitiously  advertising  themselves.  As 
respects  Christian  Science  they  con- 
fess, that  it  bears  a  certain  kinship 

131 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

to  their  own  system.  This  applies 
in  particular  to  such  conceptions  as 
unity  of  being  and  the  power  of  mind 
over  bodily  conditions.  On  the  other 
hand  they  protest  against  the  despotic 
concentration  of  authority  character- 
istic of  Christian  Science,  and  take 
exception,  whether  writh  entire  con- 
sistency or  not,  to  its  sweeping  nega- 
tion of  matter,  sickness,  sin,  and 
death.  One  of  their  number  states 
the  points  of  comparison  as  follows: 
"  Christian  Science  and  the  New 
Thought  agree  that  all  life  is  one; 
that  all  intelligence  is  one;  that  God 
is  all  in  all.  And  they  disagree  on 
the  following  points:  Christian  Science 
says  that  the  visible  world  is  mortal 
mind  [that  is,  an  illusion];  the  NewT 
Thought  declares  the  visible  universe 
to  be  an  expression  of  God's  handi- 
work. Christian  Science  asserts  that 
sin,  sickness,  and  death  have  no  ex- 
istence. The  New  Thought  affirms 
that  they  have  an  existence;  but  that 

132 


GENERAL  SKETCH 

their  existence  is  only  limited  and 
their  destruction  comes  through  right 
thinking  and  hence  right  living.  Chris- 
tian Science  stands  for  a  great  sec- 
tarian organization;  it  stands  for  slav- 
ery of  the  individual  to  an  institution 
— at  least  at  present.  The  New 
Thought  stands  for  a  knowledge  of 
spiritual  truth  among  all  people  and 
perfect  freedom  of  the  individual  in 
both  thought  and  action,  to  live  out 
the  life  God  intended  him  to  live. 
Christian  Science  stands  for  a  wom- 
an and  a  book;  the  New  Thought 
movement  stands  for  God  manifesting 
through  the  soul  of  man,  for  eternal 
laws  of  creation,  and  for  absolute 
freedom  of  the  individual  to  work 
out  his  own  salvation.  Christian  Sci- 
ence stands  for  a  treatment  of  disease 
that  includes  both  a  negative  and  an 
affirmative  philosophy ;  the  New  Though  t 
in  its  treatment  of  disease  rests  on  the 
omnipotence  of  God  as  the  one  and  only 
healing  power    in    the    universe,  and 

133 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

is  therefore  thoroughly  and  solely  af- 
firmative. "3 

Relative  to  modern  Theosophy  very 
little  is  said  by  New  Thought  writers. 
We  notice  that  one  of  them  appro- 
priates the  Theosophical  notion  of  an 
astral  body,  and  speaks  in  compli- 
mentary terms  of  the  contribution 
made  by  Theosophy  to  an  understand- 
ing of  man's  complex  nature.4  Some- 
what of  a  leaning,  as  will  be  shown 
in  the  next  chapter,  to  the  doctrine 
of  reincarnation,  so  prominent  in 
Theosophy,  is  discoverable  in  New 
Thought  literature. 

In  relation  to  Spiritualism  we  find 
one  exponent  of  New  Thought  in- 
dulging in  the  appreciative  remark 
that  it  has  afforded  indubitable  evi- 
dence of  the  continued  existence  of 
the  human  spirit  after  death.6  An 
adverse  reference,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  contained  in  the  judgment  of  an- 

» Patterson,  The  Will  to  Be  Well,  pp.  16,  17. 
4  Newcomb,  Principles  of  Psychic  Philosophy,  pp.  45-50. 
Newcomb,  All's  Right  with  the  World,  p.  202. 
134 


GENERAL  SKETCH 

other  writer  that  mediumship,  as  in- 
volving an  undue  subjection  of  one 
mind  to  another,  is  unwholesome.6 

New  Thought  has,  as  we  understand, 
no  central  organization,  and  in  com- 
paratively few  cases  has  its  con- 
stituency been  gathered  into  distinct 
churches.  In  the  attitude  assumed 
toward  the  historic  churches  some 
differences  are  observable.  The  most 
irenic  position  that  has  fallen  under 
our  notice  is  that  taken  by  Henry 
Wood.  He  says:  "A  few  of  those 
who  claim  to  be  exponents  of  New 
Thought  have  been  more  or  less  severe 
in  their  attacks  upon  conventional 
institutions.  This  spirit  has  no  gen- 
uine warrant  and  it  does  not  represent 
the  New  Thought  in  its  purity  and 
breadth.  One  of  its  basic  principles 
is  to  see  the  best  side  of  everything. 
Whatever  the  fault  of  the  formal 
creeds  and  doctrines,  the  ideals  of 
the  church   are   mainly  right.     It   is 

•  Patterson,  In  the  Sunlight  of  Health,  pp.  304,  305. 
135 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

not  to  be  destroyed  or  superseded,  but 
spiritualized,  purified,  and  illumined."7 
Passages  as  kindly  in  tone  as  this 
we  judge  to  be  thoroughly  exceptional. 
We  find  one  writer  making  the  bald 
statement  that  the  church  of  to-day 
stands  as  a  barrier  to  all  really  ad- 
vanced religious,  philosophic,  and  sci- 
entific thought.  "It  has  become  a 
lifeless  organism,  a  dead  body  without 
any  real  or  vital  belief  in  its  own 
teachings."8  Another  writer  scores 
ecclesiasticism — by  which  he  doubtless 
means  the  historic  Christian  Church — 
as  having  made  for  eighteen  centuries 
a  vain  struggle  "based  upon  a  sterile 
and  ascetic  philosophy,  with  its  gro- 
tesque idea  of  a  supreme  good."9 
A  third  exponent  of  the  New  Thought 
platform  censures  the  theologies  of 
orthodox  Protestantism  and  Cathol- 
icism as  alike  teaching  dogmas  that 
find  "their  only  support  in  the  theory 

7  The  New  Thought  Simplified,  pp.  133,  134. 

8  Patterson,  In  the  Sunlight  of  Health,  p.  28. 

9  Newcomb,  All's  Right  with  the  World,  p.  215. 

136 


GENERAL  SKETCH 

and  supposition  of  the  separation  of 
God  from  man."  The  same  writer 
remarks  on  the  increase  of  crime  and 
insanity,  the  depravity,  poverty,  dis- 
ease, and  wretchedness  which  every- 
where confront  us  at  the  opening  of 
the  twentieth  century,  and  lays  the 
blame  for  the  dismal  situation  upon 
the  churches,  as  having  crippled  men 
by  their  emphasis  on  human  weakness 
and  dependence.10  Equally  disparaging 
statements  could  be  cited  from  others.11 
On  the  whole,  the  New  Thought  move- 
ment, in  every  circle  where  it  succeeds 
in  making  its  influence  felt,  must 
foster  toward  the  historic  churches  an 
attitude  of  self-satisfied  superiority,  not 
to  say  of  downright  aversion  and  rad- 
ical disparagement.  Its  message  is 
virtually,  if  not  formally,  "Come  out 
from  among  them  and  find  your  needs 
met  in  the  new  religion  which  is  now 
starting  upon  its  course/ ' 

i°  Allen,  The  Message  of  New  Thought,  pp.  30,  180ff . 
u  See  in  particular  Trine,  The  New  Alinement  of  Life. 
137 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

The  expounders  of  New  Thought 
have  manifested  very  little  ambition 
to  deal  with  the  specific  problems  of 
biblical  criticism.  Their  method  is,  in 
general,  to  take  the  Bible  as  they 
find  it,  and  to  employ  such  portions 
of  it  as  are  agreeable  to  their  postu- 
lates, ignoring  or  freely  contradicting 
the  rest.  In  their  view  the  Bible  is 
in  no  preeminent  sense  a  divine  rev- 
elation. They  see  no  reason  why  God 
should  not  be  supposed  to  have  spoken 
through  Emerson  and  Walt  Whitman 
as  truly  as  through  Moses  and  Paul. 
Some  of  them  would  not  hesitate  to 
say  that  among  the  sacred  books  of 
the  world  the  Bible  is  the  best.  Others 
would  prefer  to  say  that  it  is  the 
best  for  those  peoples  over  wThose 
religious  thought  it  has  been  installed, 
and  reserve  a  place  for  doubting 
whether  it  is  best  for  Buddhists, 
Hindus,  Mohammedans,  or  Confucian- 
ists.  Occasionally  the  judgment  crops 
out  that  the   grounds   of   choice  be- 

138 


GENERAL  SKETCH 

tween  religions  are  not  at  all  sub- 
stantial. Thus  we  read:  "The  great 
fundamental  principles  of  all  religions 
are  the  same.  They  differ  only  in 
their  minor  details  according  to  vari- 
ous degrees  of  unfoldment  of  different 
people."12  It  is  to  be  noticed,  how- 
ever, that  practically  New  Thought 
writers  pay  special  tribute  to  the 
Christian  oracles,  the  number  of  their 
citations  from  other  sacred  books  being 
comparatively  insignificant. 

The  conception  of  Christ  character- 
istic of  New  Thought  is  purely  hu- 
manitarian. To  be  sure,  entire  readi- 
ness is  shown  to  ascribe  to  him  divinity 
or  deity.  But  that  form  of  description 
is  not  regarded  as  bespeaking  for  him 
any  exclusive  distinction.  He  may  be 
characterized  as  a  God-man,  but  not 
as  the  God-man.  He  may  have  been 
somewhat  extraordinary  in  the  clarity 
of  his  recognition  of  his  oneness  w^ith 
God;  in  this,  however,  he  simply  put 

*•  Trine,  In  Tune  with  the  Infinite,  p.  208. 
139 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

on  exhibition  the  normal  man.  There 
is  no  ground  whatever  for  believing 
that  his  personality  differed  from  that 
of  other  men.13  He  stands  before  us 
as  the  moral  ideal,  and  fulfills  the 
office  of  Saviour  by  example.  Even 
in  his  miracles  he  is  not  apart  from  us. 
The  so-called  miracles  were  perfectly 
conformable  to  law,  and  indicate  the 
kind  of  equipment  any  man  might  use 
if  he  would  but  enter  upon  his  full 
inheritance. 

In  their  teaching  on  the  practical 
conduct  of  life  New  Thought  writers 
give  expression  to  many  excellent  max- 
ims. The  several  virtues  which  may 
be  regarded  as  constitutive  of  Christ- 
likeness  are  strongly  and  repeatedly 
emphasized  by  them.  It  may  be 
questioned,  indeed,  whether  the  point 
of  view  from  which  the  emphasis  pro- 
ceeds is  always  the  best,  but  that  a 
full  measure  of  emphasis  is  awarded 
no  reader  can  fail  to  discover.     Love, 

«  Patterson,  The  Will  to  Be  Well,  pp.  81,  82. 
140 


GENERAL  SKETCH 

charitableness,  gentleness,  patience> 
spiritual  mindedness,  together  with 
the  avoidance  of  envy,  jealousy,  ha- 
tred, and  every  form  of  unbrotherly 
conduct  are  worthily  inculcated.  Of 
course,  it  is  not  at  all  necessary  to  go 
to  the  New  Thought  literature  to  meet 
earnest  commendations  of  the  Christ- 
like virtues.  Still,  the  industry  with 
which  these  virtues  are  insisted  upon 
in  that  literature  calls  for  appreciation. 
As  examples  of  finely  expressed  max- 
ims we  subjoin  the  following:  "Love 
is  the  greatest  success  in  the  world." 
"The  ultimate  end  of  life  is  to  love, 
not  to  be  loved,  although  that  follows 
as  a  natural  sequence."  "Love  is  the 
eternal  sunshine  of  life,  and  to  one 
living  in  that  sunshine  there  can  be 
no  darkness."  "Love  seeks  nothing 
for  itself  but  the  opportunity  of  ex- 
pression." "To  think  no  evil  is  simply 
to  have  no  ownership  of  it."  "Though 
the  law  of  nonresistance  is  looked  upon 
as  weak  and  impracticable,  it  is  divine 

141 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

and  conquers/ '  "Obstinacy  is  the 
mark  of  a  weak  will.  It  asserts  itself 
in  an  emphatic  and  abnormal  way 
because  distrustful  of  its  power."  "A 
man  can  never  be  really  free  who 
allows  himself  to  become  attached  to 
or  controlled  by  his  possessions."  "The 
only  infidelity  is  the  worship  of  the 
golden  calf,  the  reverence  for  things 
material  rather  than  things  spiritual." 
"To  become  an  instrument  of  the 
Spirit  one  must  eliminate  all  sarcasm, 
all  unrighteous  judgment,  all  exclusive- 
ness  and  pettiness,  by  cultivating  the 
most  generous  attitude."  "Peace  is 
not  a  stagnant  pool;  it  is  a  deep- 
flowing  river."  "Absolute  confidence 
in  the  eternal  wisdom,  love,  and  power 
of  life  is  necessary  to  clear  seeing  and 
right  doing."14  Maxims  such  as  these 
we  regard  as  the  largest  factor  on  the 
credit  side  of  New  Thought. 

14  The  citations  are  from  Dresser,  Patterson,  Wood,  and  New- 
comb. 


142 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  DOCTRINE  OF  MAN 

We  do  not  find  that  close  dis- 
crimination of  the  factors  which  enter 
into  man's  being  is  specially  charac- 
teristic of  New  Thought  literature. 
The  writer  whose  publications  are  per- 
haps the  most  numerous  specifies  as 
the  components  of  the  individual  these 
three,  namely,  soul  or  spirit,  mind 
and  body.  He  defines  mind  as  the 
expression  of  soul  or  spirit,  and  body 
as  the  expression  of  mind.1  As  respects 
the  grasp  of  the  higher  verities,  he 
disparages  the  ability  of  the  mental 
factor.  "Mind,"  he  says,  "can  never 
apprehend  God.  We  can  reason  and 
think  about  spirit,  but  we  can  really 
know   it   only   through   spiritual,    not 

»  Patterson,  The  Will  to  Be  Well,  p.  16. 
143 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

mental  activity."2  A  formal  expres- 
sion of  the  trichotomist  theory,  in  this 
style,  is  rarely  indulged  in  by  New 
Thought  writers.  The  emphasis  with 
them  is  not  so  much  upon  the  mind 
being  the  expression  of  the  spirit  as 
upon  the  body  being  the  expression 
of  the  mind.  In  this  latter  statement 
the  intention  seems  to  be  not  so  much 
to  give  a  precise  definition  of  the 
body  as  to  stress  its  dependence  upon 
the  mind  as  its  formative  principle. 
Just  how  the  body,  or  the  material 
world  in  general,  is  to  be  construed 
is  left  somewhat  in  the  mist.  The 
strong  predilection  of  New  Thought 
for  monism,  or  the  assumption  of  the 
thoroughgoing  oneness  of  all  being, 
stands  in  the  way  of  making  any 
positive  antithesis,  in  respect  of  essence, 
between  matter  and  mind  or  spirit. 
On  the  other  hand,  to  distinguish  be- 
tween them  is  found  to  be  exceedingly 
convenient  in  various  connections.    So 


s  Patterson,  The  Measure  of  a  Man,  pp.  xxiv,  rxv. 
144 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  MAN 

the  temptation  not  to  elucidate  the  sub- 
ject too  searchingly  is  operative.  One 
writer,  resorting  to  a  standard  found  in 
Theosophical  literature,  makes  the  dis- 
tinction between  mind  and  matter  to  lie 
in  the  rate  of  vibration.  "Matter,"  he 
says,  "is  mind  at  a  slower  rate  of  vibra- 
tion. Mind  is  matter  at  a  higher  rate. 
Spirit  is  infinitely  more  rapid  than  either 
and  rules  both."3  How  spirit  or  mind, 
equally  with  body,  can  be  a  subject 
for  vibration  the  context  does  not 
inform  us.  The  language  employed 
tends  not  so  much  to  spiritualize  matter 
as  to  materialize  mind  and  spirit. 

A  recurring  distinction  is  met  with 
in  New  Thought  literature  between 
the  conscious  and  the  subconscious 
mind.  Much  account  is  made  of  the 
latter.  It  is  likened  to  "a  great  cov- 
ered reservoir  in  which  is  stored  up 
the  total  aggregation  of  past  mental 
states  and  activities."4     Again  it  is 

»  Newcomb,  Discovery  of  a  Lost  Trail,  p.  252. 
4  Wood,  The  New  Thought  Simplified,  p.  43. 
145 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

described  as  the  hidden  partner  which 
acts  automatically  upon  the  physical 
organism,  and  subtly  directs  all  that 
class  of  activities  which  is  called  in- 
voluntary."5 More  discriminatingly  it 
is  defined  as  a  less  conscious  phase  of 
a  single  selfhood,  too  copious  to  be 
wholly  displayed  at  one  time."6  How 
important  a  factor  it  is  supposed  to 
be  among  the  forces  which  shape 
conduct  appears  in  this  statement: 
"Perhaps  the  largest  part  of  our  ex- 
perience is  in  the  field  of  the  sub- 
conscious. A  trait  or  purpose  is 
developed  there  long  before  it  appears 
above  the  horizon  of  our  perception. 
Long  after  we  have  denied  a  habit  or 
opinion  it  is  apt  to  linger  there  and 
color  and  actuate  our  life."7 

The  immense  emphasis  which  New 
Thought  places  upon  the  interconnec- 
tion of  all  beings  affords  a  congenial 
basis  for  recognizing  the  fact  of  telep- 

*  Wood,  The  New  Thought  Simplified,  p.  44. 
8  Dresser,  Human  Efficiency,  p.  121. 
7  Newcomb,  All's  Right  with  the  World,  p. -149. 
146 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  MAN 

athy,  or  the  existence  of  a  power  of 
direct  communication  between  minds 
placed  at  a  distance  from  one  another. 
Not  all  New  Thought  exponents  have 
concerned  themselves  with  the  sub- 
ject; but  some  of  them  have  rendered 
a  very  confident  judgment  in  favor 
of  the  reality  of  telepathy.  Thus  C. 
B.  Newcomb  remarks:  "It  is  a  scien- 
tific fact  which  is  being  constantly 
demonstrated  through  telepathy  that 
mind  can  consciously  converse  with 
mind."8  "Thought  waves  appear  to 
spread  and  widen  in  their  vibrations 
very  much  as  those  of  sound  and 
light.  They  are  also  intensified  in 
their  power  by  being  brought  to  a 
focus,  as  are  the  sun  rays  by  a  burning 
glass."  He  adds:  "Experiment  in  this 
field  has  been  so  limited  that  as  yet 
we  have  reached  only  a  few  definite 
conclusions.  It  appears  that  the  con- 
ditions which  have  produced  the  most 
satisfactory  results   at   one  time  are 

8  Principles  of  Psychic  Philosophy,  p.  194. 

147 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

by  no  means  certain  to  produce  the 
same  results  at  another."9  A.  B. 
Olston  pronounces  with  like  decision 
for  the  fact  of  telepathy,  and  cites 
many  instances  in  confirmation.  In 
his  view  it  is  in  particular  the  sub- 
conscious, or,  as  he  names  it,  the 
subjective  mind,  that  is  operative  in 
this  order  of  communication.  Accord- 
ingly, he  defines  telepathy  as  "the 
normal  communication  between  sub- 
jective minds,  independent  of  the  five 
objective  senses."10 

Not  less  than  telepathy  the  doctrine 
of  reincarnation,  or  repeated  incarna- 
tions, has  a  congenial  basis  in  points 
of  view  characteristic  of  New  Thought. 
It  alleviates  the  difficulty  which  apart 
from  it  would  attach  to  the  thesis, 
that  all  physical  ills  have  their 
origin  in  mental  errancy  or  misdirected 
thought.  While  not  enumerated  in 
the    list    of    acknowledged    tenets,    it 


c  All's  Right  with  the  World,  p.  231. 
«>  Olston,  Mind  Power,  p.  57. 

148 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  MAN 

crops  out  here  and  there,  as  appears 
in  the  following  sentences:  "This 
little  earth  life  is  not  the  beginning 
nor  the  end  of  man's  destiny."11  "Chil- 
dren in  this  life  without  doubt  are 
being  rewarded  or  punished  for  things 
done  or  left  undone  in  a  past  life."12 
"The  mills  of  the  gods  grind  so  slowly 
that  the  grist  of  to-day  may  have 
been  put  into  the  hopper  in  some 
incarnation  far  remote,  but  doubtless 
by  the  man's  own  hands,  for  it  is  only 
our  own  grist  that  comes  to  us  through 
the  mill  of  life."13  "Why,"  asks  the 
writer  of  the  last  sentence,  "should  the 
philosophy  of  reembodiment  which  has 
always  been  held  by  the  larger  part 
of  the  world,  including  its  most  dis- 
tinguished minds,  be  so  distasteful  to 
a  few  who  have  not  until  recently  been 
made  familiar  with  its  teachings?"14  On 
the  other  hand,  H.  W.  Dresser  rates 


11  Patterson,  Dominion  and  Power,  p.  139. 

12  Patterson,  In  the  Sunlight  of  Health,  pp.  146,  147. 

13  Newcomb,  Discovery  of  a  Lost  Trail,  pp.  110,  111. 

14  Newcomb,  Discovery  of  a  Lost  Trail,  p.  254. 

149 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

the  doctrine  of  reincarnation  as  only  an 
hypothesis,  and  confesses  that  he  has 
found  but  little  evidence  in  its  favor.15 
It  is  characteristic  of  the  literature 
with  which  we  are  dealing  to  emphasize 
profoundly  the  power  of  thought  among 
the  elements  of  man's  equipment.  Its 
virtue  is  accounted  practically  unlim- 
ited. Illustrative  statements  naturally 
will  be  in  special  demand  when  we 
come  to  the  healing  art  of  New 
Thought;  but  a  few  samples  of  the 
ever-recurring  strain  may  be  admitted 
at  this  point.  "Thought,"  we  read, 
"is  not  only  the  greatest  but  the 
only  real  power  in  the  universe."16 
"Will  is  not,  as  so  often  thought,  a 
force  in  itself;  will  is  the  directing 
power.  Thought  is  the  force."17  In 
proportion  as  a  man  opens  himself 
to  the  divine  influx  he  takes  on  the 
God-powers.  "And  if  the  God-powers 
are  without   limit,   does   it   not   then 

«  Dresser,  The  Search  of  a  Soul,  pp.  175,  176. 
J"  Wood,  Studies  in  the  Thought  World,  p.  235. 
»  Trine,  What  All  the  World's  A-Seeking,  p.  173. 
150 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  MAN 

follow  that  the  only  limitations  man 
has  are  the  limitations  he  sets  him- 
self by  virtue  of  not  knowing  him- 
self?"18  "The  art  of  living  is  the  art 
of  thinking,  for  life  has  no  values 
except  as  thought  molds  them.  .  .  . 
Right  thought  means  right  living."19 
"The  personal  body  is  a  physical  copy 
of  the  individual  mind,  and  in  some 
part  of  its  construction  expresses  its 
every  thought."20  "The  body  is  what 
the  mind  makes  it."21  "With  scien- 
tific accuracy,  one  can  make  himself 
what  he  will  by  thinking  his  thoughts 
into  the  right  form,  and  continuing 
the  process  until  they  solidify  and  take 
outward  correspondence."22  "It  is  lit- 
erally true  that  thought  can  be  ma- 
terialized through  trained  and  powerful 
concentration."23  "Thoughts  are  living 
entities."24 

18  Trine,  In  Tune  with  the  Infinite,  p.  15. 
»  Allen,  The  Message  of  New  Thought,  pp.  261,  265. 
*>  Whipple,  Mental  Healing,  p.  137. 
"  Patterson,  What  Is  New  Thought?  p.  32. 
M  Wood,  The  New  Thought  Simplified,  p.  49. 
"  Newcomb,  Principles  of  Psychic  Philosophy,  p.  187. 
M  Newcomb,  All's  Right  with  the  World,  p.  107. 
151 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD  AND 
OF  MAN'S  RELATION  TO  HIM 

The  ruling  conception  of  God  in 
New  Thought  is  that  of  the  Universal 
Life.  He  is  also  called  the  Universal 
Love  and  the  Universal  Intelligence. 
On  the  question  whether  personality 
is  to  be  ascribed  to  him,  most  of  the 
writers,  if  they  do  not  enter  a  denial, 
show  little  interest  to  record  an  affirma- 
tion. H.  W.  Dresser  takes  a  some- 
what exceptional  course  in  raising  safe- 
guards against  a  pantheistic  obscura- 
tion of  divine  personality.  He  is  at 
pains  to  assert  that  God  does  not 
exhaust  himself  in  his  world  activity, 
that  he  is  in  a  sense  transcendent  and 
as  transcendent  essentially  unchange- 
able; that  the  sons  of  God,  while  not 

152 


THE  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD 

separated  from  him,  do  not  become 
God,  any  more  than  a  human  father 
absorbs  his  child.1  Moreover,  he  ad- 
vises against  thinking  of  the  Divine 
Presence  as  impersonal,2  and  declares, 
"No  man  was  ever  a  pantheist  in 
practical  life."3  On  the  other  hand, 
he  greatly  emphasizes  the  intimacy  of 
connection  between  God  and  the  world. 
He  speaks  of  the  infinite  as  "made 
perfect  through  the  finite."4  He  as- 
cribes eternity  to  the  world,  and  adds, 
"If  a  world  of  some  sort  has  always 
existed,  there  is  no  need  of  a  theory 
of  final  causes.  Teleology  gives  place 
to  description.  The  constitution  of 
the  world  is  what  it  is  because  God  is 
what  he  is."5  In  another  connection 
he  makes  room  for  teleology  to  the 
extent  of  speaking  of  the  cosmos  as 
revealing  purpose.  He  says,  however, 
"The  purpose  of  God  is  the  eternal 

1  Man  and  the  Divine  Order,  pp.  408,  410,  411. 

*  A  Message  to  the  Well,  p.  38. 

1  Man  and  the  Divine  Order,  p.  164. 

*  In  Search  of  a  Soul,  p.  215. 

5  Man  and  the  Divine  Order,  pp.  399,  401. 
153 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

expression  of  the  being  of  God"6 — a 
form  of  statement  which  leaves  us 
still  to  inquire  whether  God  has  an 
option  in  respect  of  the  ends  which 
he  pursues. 

The  reference  of  other  New  Thought 
advocates  to  the  personality  of  God 
is  distinctly  more  negative  and  com- 
promising in  tone.  One  of  them 
writes:  "We  might  say  that  God  is 
all  the  personality  in  the  universe 
and  much  more  than  personality.  God 
is  infinite  love,  limitless  and  supreme; 
but  personality  is  limited."7  Another 
remarks:  "God  is  not  less  but  incom- 
parably more  than  personal.  Infinite 
Mind,  Love,  and  Law  are  terms  which 
doubtless  carry  to  the  average  mind 
a  more  correct  concept  of  the  Supreme 
Being  than  personality."8  A  third 
exponent  of  New  Thought  is  not  at 
all  disturbed  by  the  charge  of  panthe- 
ism, and  contents  himself  with  asking 

"The  Philosophy  of  the  Spirit,  pp.  113,  115. 
7  Patterson,  The  Measure  of  a  Man,  pp.  142,  143. 
6  Wood,  Studies  in  the  Thought  World,  p.  183. 
154 


THE  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD 

the  question,  "Is  not  a  spiritual  pan- 
theism more  desirable  than  an  absentee 
God?"9 

In  construing  man's  relation  to  God 
New  Thought  writers  are  not  careful 
to  avoid  the  appearance  of  a  pan- 
theistic blend  of  the  human  and  the 
divine.  Even  H.  W.  Dresser,  in  one 
of  his  books,  speaks  of  the  higher  self 
in  man  as  an  "individuation  of  God,"10 
and  with  other  writers  it  is  a  well- 
established  habit  to  designate  man  as 
a  part  of  God.  The  following  are 
characteristic  statements:  "All  minds 
are  substantially  parts  of  one  omni- 
present mind,  which  is  the  basis  of 
all  manifestation."11  "There  is  no 
difference  between  the  great  universal 
Soul  and  the  individual  soul,  other 
than  this  one  thought  of  differentiation 
or  individualization."12  "God  is  all; 
and,  if  all,  then  each  individual,  you 

8  Allen,  The  Message  of  New  Thought,  p.  59. 
10  In  Search  of  a  Soul,  p.  118. 
»  Wood,  Studies  in  the  Thought  World,  p.  189. 
u  Patterson,  The  Will  to  Be  Well,  p.  117. 
155 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

and  I,  must  be  a  vital  part  of  that 
all,  since  there  can  be  nothing  separate 
from  it;  and  if  a  part,  then  the  same 
in  nature,  in  characteristics — the  same 
as  a  tumbler  of  water  taken  from  the 
ocean  is,  in  nature,  in  qualities,  in 
characteristics,  identical  with  that 
ocean,  its  source.  God,  then,  is  the 
infinite  Spirit  of  which  each  one  is 
a  part  in  the  form  of  an  individual- 
ized spirit."13 

Proceeding  from  this  point  of  view, 
exponents  of  New  Thought  are  very 
free  to  ascribe  divinity  to  man.  In- 
stances occur  in  which  the  divine 
name  is  given  him,  divine  functions 
are  predicated  of  him  and  his  identity 
with  God  is  as  good  as  affirmed. 
The  reader  is  told,  "There  is  no 
separation  between  your  soul  and  the 
soul  of  the  universe.  ...  In  the  deep- 
est sense  you  are  the  great  univer- 
sal   soul."14      "Man    is    the    personal 

«  Trine,  What  All  the  World's  A-Seeking,  p.  137. 
M  Patterson,  The  Measure  of  a  Man,  p.  123. 
156 


THE  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD 

expression  of  the  one  creative  Spirit; 
so  that  purposeful  evolution  is  a 
multiplying  of  self-conscious,  divine 
personalities."15  "Divine  incarnations 
must  be  multiplied  and  perfected  until 
God  shall  find  adequate  expression  in 
humanity."16  "Man  is  God  incar- 
nate."17 "Cast  thyself  into  the  will 
of  God  and  thou  shalt  become  as  God. 
For  thou  art  God  if  thy  will  be  the 
divine  will."18  "God  is  Love.  God 
is  Law.  We  are  Law.  God  and  Love 
and  Law  are  One.  We  are  Love.  We 
are  One.  We  are  God."19  "We  have 
latent  within  us  such  powers  over 
matter,  as  we  have  but  just  begun 
to  dream.  In  the  scheme  of  creation 
we  shall  ourselves  rank  as  creators, 
with  ability  to  disintegrate  and  rein- 
tegrate at  will  such  forms  as  we  shall 
choose    to    bring    into    visible    exist- 

16  Wood,  Studies  in  the  Thought  World,  p.  28. 
» Ibid.,  p.  226. 

J7  Trine,  What  All  the  World's  A-Seeking,  p.  122. 
i8  Newcomb,  Principles  of  Psychic  Philosophy,  p.  139. 
19  Rosicrucian  axiom  cited  by  Newcomb,  Principles  of  Psychic 
Philosophy ,  p.   181. 

157 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

ence."20  "We  are  already  warranted 
in  boldly  claiming  that  we  have  no 
limitations  except  those  we  have  placed 
upon  ourselves."21 

These  lofty  descriptions  are  meant 
to  be  applied  not  to  the  exceptional 
man,  but  to  every  man;  not,  indeed, 
in  all  their  specifications  to  the  present 
estate  of  every  man,  but  to  the  ulti- 
mate estate.  New  Thought  has  no 
tolerance  for  the  supposition  that  any 
human  being  can  fail  of  the  ideal 
consummation.  It  repudiates  the  no- 
tion of  lost  souls.22  "Man,"  we  are 
informed,  "is  ever  pressing  steadfastly 
toward  life,  toward  a  knowledge  of 
truth.  All  his  sins  and  all  his  mis- 
takes, when  seen  and  understood  in 
their  right  relation,  have  only  been 
stepping-stones  to  greater  knowledge, 
to  truer  understanding."23  "All  pass 
ultimately    over    the    same    road    in 

*  Newcomb,  Discovery  of  a  Lost  Trail,  p.  255. 

tl  Newcomb,  Principles  of  Psychic  Philosophy,  p.  134. 
n  Dresser,  Man  and  the  Divine  Order,  pp.  141,  385. 

*  Patterson,  What  Is  New  Thought?  p.  45. 

158 


THE  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD 

general,  some  more  rapidly,  some  more 
slowly.  The  ultimate  destiny  of  all 
is  the  higher  life,  the  finding  of  the 
higher  self,  and  to  this  we  are  either 
led  or  pushed."24 

The  inclusion  of  man  in  God,  the 
making  him  a  veritable  part  of  Deity, 
prepares  a  difficult  situation  for  the 
champions  of  New  Thought  when  they 
address  themselves  to  the  question  of 
the  reality  of  sin,  sickness,  suffering, 
and  death.  It  is  somewhat  enigmatic 
that  a  veritable  part  of  the  perfect 
and  Holy  One  should  be  a  subject 
for  any  form  of  evil,  and  especially 
of  moral  evil. 

In  dealing  with  this  difficulty  New 
Thought  expositors  have  been  pushed 
into  a  kind  of  apology  for  evil,  moral 
delinquency  included.  They  are  led 
to  define  it  as  a  means  to  something 
higher  than  itself,  or  as  purely  neg- 
ative, or  as  a  lack  of  development,  or 
as  a  partial  expression  of  life,  or  as  a 

"  Trine,  What  All  the  World's  A-Seeking,  p.  143. 
159 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

product  of  ignorance.  Their  writings 
abound  in  such  sentences  as  these: 
"The  followers  of  the  new  doctrine 
believe  that  ultimately  only  the  good 
exists,  all  seeming  wrong  being  a 
means  to  an  end  higher  than  itself."25 
"When  fully  interpreted  evil  ceases  to 
be  evil,  and  becomes  educational 
experience."26  "Just  as  darkness  is 
the  absence  of  the  light  of  the  sun, 
so  evil  is  the  absence  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  law  of  God."27  "What 
we  have  called  evil  proves  to  be 
only  a  negative  condition — a  transi- 
tion state,  an  imperfect  ripening."28 
"Good  and  evil  are  merely  compar- 
ative terms — labels,  one  might  say, 
for  different  degrees  of  attainment."29 
"All  wrong  mental  conditions — malice, 
hatred,  envy,  pride,  jealousy,  sensuality, 
and  kindred  emotions — are  indications 


25  Dresser,  In  Search  of  a  Soul,  pp.  225,  226. 
26.Wood,  The  New  Thought  Simplified,  p.  89. 
27  Patterson,  Dominion  and  Power,  p.  30. 
2S  Newcomb,  Principles  of  Psychic  Philosophy,  p.  10. 
16  Patterson,  Tbe  Measure  of  a  Man,  p.  40. 
1G0 


THE  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD 

of  a  lack  of  development. "30  "Evil  rep- 
resents the  undeveloped  or  partial  ex- 
pression of  life/'31  "Selfishness  is  at  the 
root  of  all  error,  sin,  and  crime,  and  igno- 
rance is  at  the  basis  of  all  selfishness."32 
Occasionally  the  felt  demand  to 
make  as  little  as  possible  of  evil  drives 
the  apologist  into  an  apparent  denial 
of  its  existence.  We  have  noticed 
one  writer  in  particular  whose  denials 
on  this  theme,  taken  in  their  verbal 
form,  are  quite  as  prominent  as  his 
affirmations,  and  to  discover  the 
method  of  the  reconciliation  of  the 
two  orders  of  statements  is  rather 
taxing.  On  the  one  hand,  he  criticizes 
Christian  Science  for  its  negations,  and 
declares,  "If  you  say,  in  good  faith, 
that  there  is  no  sin,  sickness,  or  dis- 
ease, you  have  simply  succeeded  in 
hypnotizing  yourself  into  an  erroneous 
belief."33    On  the  other  hand,  he  lays 

*>  Patterson,  The  Will  to  Be  Well,  p.  15. 
31  Patterson,  Dominion  and  Power,  p.  150. 
82  Trine,  In  Tune  with  the  Infinite,  p.  89. 
■  Patterson,  The  Will  to  Be  Well,  p.  123. 
161 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

down  propositions  that  might  have 
been  penned  by  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy. 
What  statements  in  Science  and  Health 
are  more  radically  negative  than  the 
following? — "There  never  was  any  real- 
ity in  sin,  disease,  or  death."34 
"Nothing  is  evil  in  and  of  itself. 
Evil  is  the  result  of  the  false  im- 
aginings we  indulge  in."35  "The  great- 
est lesson  man  has  yet  to  learn  is 
that  all  things  are  good;  that  evil 
is  no  thing;  that  it  seems  to  be,  but 
in  reality  is  not."36  "In  reality  there 
is  neither  sin,  sickness,  nor  death. 
God's  law  can  neither  be  broken  nor 
set  aside."37  Such  language  we  regard 
as  a  striking  testimony  to  the  exigency 
which  is  thrust  upon  New  Thought 
by  its  fundamental  doctrine  that  man 
is  a  veritable  part  of  God.  Starting 
from  such  a  premise,  how  can  anyone 
who  has  any  respect  for  God,  restrain 

3i  Patterson,  In  the  Sunlight  of  Health,  p.  152. 
*5  Ibid.,  p.  254. 
»8  Ibid.,  p.  433. 

37  Dominion  and  Power,  p.  35. 
162 


THE  CONCEPTION  OF  GOD 

his  desire  to  minify  or  even  to  abrogate 
the  fact  of  sin?  Most  New  Thought 
writers  do  not  proceed  to  the  latter 
extreme,  but  obviously  their  leading 
postulates  bring  a  pressure  to  bear 
upon  them  in  that  direction. 


163 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  THERAPEUTIC  SCHEME 

The  very  tenuous  hold  upon  reality 
which  is  ascribed  to  evil  and  the 
limitless  efficacy  which  is  assigned  to 
thought  serve  as  the  foundation  of  the 
therapeutic  scheme  which  is  so  prom- 
inent a  factor  in  New  Thought.  In 
its  diagnosis  of  bodily  ills  they  are 
referred  to  just  one  source.  That 
source  is  mental  errancy,  perverse  or 
misdirected  thought  and  the  abnormal 
feeling  which  it  engenders.  "Mental 
healing/'  we  are  told  by  one  writer, 
"has  fully  demonstrated  that  the  imag- 
ing faculty  of  man  is  responsible  for 
all  the  ills  from  which  he  suffers. 
One  disease  is  no  more  imaginary 
than  another.  .  .  .  Our  thoughts  are 
first  ideated,  then  expressed  out- 
wardly.    The  expression  must  corre- 

164 


THE  THERAPEUTIC  SCHEME 

spond  to  the  inner  thought.  If  this 
is  inflamed,  inflammation  will  make  it- 
self felt  in  the  body.  .  .  .  The  many 
inflammatory  diseases  that  come  from 
poor  circulation  and  poisoned  blood  are 
simply  expressions  of  inflamed  mental 
conditions."1  In  an  equivalent  strain 
another  writer  assures  us:  "All  disease 
is  in  the  emotional  life.  It  is  a  disturb- 
ance of  the  circulation  which  proceeds 
from  thought."2  "The  fevers  and  dis- 
tempers of  the  body  only  externalize 
those  of  the  mind."3  The  same  writer 
does  not  shun  to  declare  that  "death  in 
any  form  is  suicide,"4  and  another 
writer  makes  a  statement  scarcely  less 
arresting  when  he  informs  us  that 
"rags,  tatters,  and  dust  are  always 
in  the  mind  before  being  on  the  body."5 
Among  mental  aberrations  fear  is 
specially  emphasized  as  a  prolific 
source  of  diseases.     "All  disease,"  it 

1  Patterson,  In  the  Sunlight  of  Health,  pp.  207,  233. 

*  Newcomb,  Principles  of  Psychic  Philosophy,  p.  167. 
«  All's  Right  With  the  World,  p.  237. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  187. 

*  Trine,  In  Tune  with  the  Infinite,  p.  33. 

165 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

is  affirmed,  "results  from  fear."6  In 
answer  to  the  objection  that  children  are 
not  responsible  thinkers,theplea  is  made 
that  "they  are  little  sensitive  mirrors, 
in  which  surrounding  thoughts  and  con- 
ditions are  reflected  and  duplicated."7 

As  all  bodily  ills  flow  from  erring 
mental  activities,  so  health  is  the 
product  of  normal  thinking;  and  as 
our  thinking  is  subject  to  our  direc- 
tion, there  is  no  real  need  to  be 
afflicted  with  any  sort  of  physical 
ailment.  "The  mind,"  so  run  the 
New  Thought  maxims,  "can  make  the 
body  whole  and  strong,  or  the  mind 
can  make  it  weak  or  diseased;  the 
result  is  purely  a  question  of  mental 
poise  or  lack  of  it."8  "We  make  our 
bodies  what  we  will  to  make  them 
when  we  observe  the  laws  of  life. 
We  may  realize  this  so  thoroughly 
that   we   can   have   our   heaven   here 


8  Newcomb,  Principles  of  Psychic  Philosophy,  p.  130. 

7  Wood,  Studies  in  the  New  Thought  World,  p.  131. 

8  Patterson,  What  Is  New  Thought?  p.  74. 

166 


THE  THERAPEUTIC  SCHEME 

on  earth."9  "No  matter  what  ances- 
tral trait  has  been  reproduced,  no 
matter  what  taint  in  the  blood  has 
shown  itself  anew,  it  can  be  wholly 
overcome  in  any  individual  life.  .  .  . 
Man  is  his  own  creator  and  can 
dominate  what  his  mind  has  ex- 
pressed/'10 

In  the  mental  dealing  with  disease 
two  expedients  are  available,  that  of 
resolute  affirmation  of  health,  and  that 
of  serene  acquiescence  in  the  ailment. 
We  do  not  discover  that  in  the  ther- 
apeutics of  New  Thought  the  two  are 
carefully  distinguished.  The  writer 
last  cited  proffers  this  advice:  "Let 
us  make  friends  with  our  adversities. 
Nothing  else  will  so  quickly  disarm 
their  power  and  neutralize  their 
sting."11  This  is  the  method  to  em- 
ploy against  nervous  prostration.  "Let 
us  begin  by  ceasing  to  oppose — ceas- 
ing  to   fight   our   troubles,    declaring 

»  Patterson,  The  Will  to  Be  Well,  p.  51. 
30  Newcomb,  Discovery  of  a  Lost  Trail,  p.  16. 
»  Ibid.,  p.  187. 

167 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

their  nonentity,  while  we  give  ear 
to  the  thought  of  the  eternal  man — 
our  own  true  self."12 

Their  zeal  for  mental  healing  makes 
the  advocates  of  New  Thought  ex- 
ceedingly sparing  of  appreciative  ref- 
erence to  the  ordinary  type  of  medical 
science.  They  commonly  mention  it 
only  for  criticism.  We  notice,  however, 
that  one  of  them  makes  these  signifi- 
cant concessions:  "Materia  medica  fits 
the  present  stage  of  man's  develop- 
ment. ...  In  the  category  of  acute, 
contagious,  and  rapid  disorders,  the  phy- 
sician is,  and  for  some  time  to  come 
will  be,  indispensable."13  "Until  the  sub- 
jective quarantine  has  been  intelligent- 
ly erected  that  which  is  objective  can- 
not be  entirely  disregarded."14 

In  many  of  the  citations  which  have 
been  given  the  note  of  optimism  has 
been  very  conspicuous.  Nothing  in 
fact    is    more    striking    in    the    New 

12  Newcomb,  Discovery  of  a  Lost  Trail,  p.  189. 

13  Wood,  New  Thought  Simplified,  pp.  158,  160. 
w  Wood,  Studies  in  the  Thought  World,  p.  246. 

168 


THE  THERAPEUTIC  SCHEME 

Thought  system  than  its  unlimited 
optimism.  It  abolishes — in  theory — 
every  shadow,  and  leaves  not  one  re- 
gret to  be  entertained  by  any  human 
being.  The  literature  of  the  world 
may  safely  be  challenged,  we  think, 
to  outbid  such  optimistic  strains  as  the 
following:  "All  things  work  together 
for  good  whether  we  call  them  by 
the  name  of  good  or  evil."15  The  law 
of  betterment  runs  through  everything. 
"There  is  not  a  pin-point  of  personal 
experience  we  can  discover  that  has 
ever  been  outside  its  action."16  "Christ 
could  not  have  suffered  for  others, 
knowing  the  grandeur  of  their  destiny 
and  that  every  moment  of  existence 
all  things  work  together  for  good  to 
everyone."17  "True  life  is  unutterable 
sweetness,  in  which  all  the  shadows 
of  our  yesterdays  are  woven  into  the 
soft  tints  of  the  morning  sunshine."18 


15  Patterson,  Dominion  and  Power,  p.  54. 
18  Newcomb,  Principles  of  Psychic  Philosophy,  p.  30. 
"  Newcomb,  All's  Right  with  the  World,  p.  56. 
1S  Newcomb,  Discover  of  a  Lost  Trail,  p.  26. 

169 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

"The  world  is  a  garden  of  delights, 
a  veritable  Eden  to  those  who  are  not 
blind  and  deaf."19  "The  advent  of 
the  new  man,  Nietzsche's  super-man, 
is  near  at  hand,  the  man  who  shall 
enter  into  a  universal,  a  cosmic  con- 
sciousness, and  look  out  on  all  life 
as  a  ruler,  a  king  having  dominion 
and  power  over  all  things,  holding  in 
his  own  hands  the  keys  of  life."20 
"It  may  well  be  that  the  next  hun- 
dred years  of  human  progress  will 
show  man  as  victor  over  disease  and 
pain,  show  him  master  of  his  own 
physical  organism.  Crime  and  punish- 
ment for  crime  will  be  things  of  the 
past,  and  poverty  should  be  un- 
known."21 


10  Newcomb,  All's  Right  with  the  World,  p.  32. 
*>  Patterson,  What  Is  New  Thought?  pp.  144,  143. 
»  Patterson,  In  the  Sunlight  of  Health,  p.  62. 


170 


CHAPTER  V 

SOME  GROUNDS  OF  CRITICISM 

Much  less  space  will  be  required 
to  pass  upon  the  merits  of  New 
Thought  than  has  been  given  to  an 
exposition  of  its  teachings.  Here  we 
are  very  far  from  accepting  the  judg- 
ment of  its  advocates.  In  the  first 
place,  we  do  not  find  that  it  is  at 
all  distinguished  by  close  and  indus- 
trious reasoning.  On  the  contrary, 
its  method  is  superficial,  oracular,  con- 
clusive only  to  the  one  who  is  easily 
overawed  by  assertion  or  is  already 
at  the  start  more  than  ready  to  be- 
lieve. It  assumes  that  recent  thinking 
has  reached  a  list  of  indubitable  in- 
ductions and  that  these  are  identical 
with  its  own  premises.  Substantial, 
intelligible  proofs  of  these  premises  are 
nowhere  discoverable  in  its  literature. 

171 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

Not  one  of  its  writers  impresses  us  as 
specially  well  read  in  philosophy,  ex- 
cept H.  W.  Dresser,  and  his  philosophi- 
cal investigation  evidently  tended  to 
precipitate  graduation  from  character- 
istic tenets  ofj  the  New  Thought  fra- 
ternity.1 

Among  the  sweeping  but  unfounded 
assumptions  of  New  Thought  none 
takes  precedence  of  that  which  defines 
the  nature  of  God  and  of  man's  rela- 
tion to  him.  If  not  chargeable  as^a 
whole  with  canceling  the  personality 
of  God,  it  is  either  feeble  and  halting 
in  its  affirmation  of  personality,  or, 
going  a  step  further,  exposes  it  to 
doubt.  Some  of  its  representatives,  to 
save  themselves  from  the  appearance 
of  relegating  God  to  the  impersonal 
range,  speak  of  him  as  superpersonal. 
But      this      expedient      accomplishes 


1  Professor  J.  B.  Anderson  in  his  trenchant  book  entitled  New- 
Thought,  Its  Lights  and  Shadows,  notices  in  particular  the  lack 
of  philosophical  competency  shown  by  New  Thought  waiters, 
in  that  their  system  is  a  self-contradictory  blend  of  monism  and 
pluralism. 

172 


SOME  GROUNDS  OF  CRITICISM 

nothing  worth  while.  As  was  indi- 
cated in  the  criticism  of  Theosophy, 
the  super-personal  is  an  empty  phrase. 
A  God  who  cannot  be  described  as 
personal,  in  other  words,  as  possessed 
of  self-consciousness  and  will,  lacks  the 
highest  attributes  of  which  we  have 
any  conception,  and  for  all  practical 
purposes  is  lowered  to  the  impersonal 
plane.  The  appeal  to  the  notion,  or, 
rather,  to  the  word,  "super-personal," 
is  a  poor  shift,  and  whoever  is  de- 
ceived thereby  is  not  wise. 

A  motive  for  skimping  the  person- 
ality of  God  plainly  arises  from  the 
fundamental  postulate  on  the  oneness 
of  life,  the  affirmation  that  God  is 
the  Universal  Life  in  which  men  are 
included  as  integral  parts.  The  diffi- 
culty of  construing  this  proposition  is 
not  slight.  In  the  first  place,  the 
notion  of  distinguishable  parts  in  God 
has  a  queer  look.  That  notion  be- 
longs to  the  domain  of  aggregates  or 
masses.     A  physical  entity  made  up 

173 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

of  a  great  number  of  molecules  may 
conceivably  be  distinguished  into  parts, 
so  many  molecules  being  assigned  to 
one  division,  and  so  many  to  another. 
But  what  can  be  meant  by  a  part 
of  spirit,  a  part  of  the  infinite  Spirit, 
with  which  God  is  identified.  Is  God 
a  sum  of  parts,  an  aggregate?  He 
might  be  if  he  were  simply  a  very 
extensive  physical  entity,  though  even 
in  that  case  there  would  be  occasion 
to  demand  a  unitary  power  above  him 
to  coordinate  the  parts;  but  being 
Spirit,  he  cannot  be  a  sum  of  parts. 
Intelligence,  will,  and  moral  perfec- 
tions cannot  be  cut  into  sections,  or 
dished  up  with  a  cup  as  may  be  done 
with  the  water  of  the  sea.  To  make 
men  parts  of  God  amounts  to  a  denial 
that  the  proper  character  of  spiritual- 
ity belongs  either  to  God  or  men. 

Furthermore,  on  the  basis  of  that 
representation  a  question  properly 
arises  as  to  the  age  of  men.  If  they 
are  not  to  be  accounted  eternal,  then 

174 


SOME  GROUNDS  OF  CRITICISM 

God  must  have  been  subject  to  increase 
by  their  addition,  and  the  contingent 
finds  place  in  him.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  where  can  any  warrant  be  found 
for  rating  men  as  eternal?  Their 
plain  characteristics  as  mutable  and 
changing,  beginning  with  an  infin- 
itesimal mental  capital  and  advancing 
by  the  path  of  hard  experience,  belies 
the  supposition;  revelation  does  not 
countenance  it,  and  scientific  investi- 
gation discovers  for  it  no  scrap  of 
evidence.  In  short,  this  partitive  con- 
ception of  God  rejects  rational  inter- 
pretation. How  greatly  preferable  is 
the  long-standing  conception  of  Chris- 
tian philosophy,  that  man  is  rather  a 
product  than  a  part  of  God,  a  product 
of  the  divine  efficiency  which  so  oper- 
ates to  initiate  and  to  sustain  his 
being  as  to  constitute  him  an  agent 
as  well  as  a  product. 

The  moral  implications  of  the  New 
Thought  postulate  are  as  troublesome 
as   the   metaphysical.     How   does   it 

175 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

agree  with  the  perfect  wisdom  of  God 
that  parts  of  him  should  run  into  the 
abject  folly  in  which  not  a  few  men 
indulge?  How  does  it  harmonize  with 
his  spotless  holiness  that  parts  of  him 
should  be  stained  with  such  abomina- 
ble wickedness  as  men  often  have 
placed  to  their  account?  How  unite 
in  one  Being,  and  a  Being  figured  as 
the  supreme  ideal,  these  flagrant  con- 
tradictions? The  task  is  one  that  lies 
close  to  despair.  New  Thought  writers 
confess  as  much  when  they  tone  down, 
curtail,  and  at  the  extreme  even  abol- 
ish the  notion  of  sin.  Herein  they  play 
a  role  that  is  at  once  anti-biblical, 
anti-ethical,  and  anti-religious.  The 
Bible  profoundly  emphasizes  the  ex- 
ceeding sinfulness  of  sin,  and  from 
beginning  to  end  seeks  to  foster  a 
vital  sense  of  its  demerit.  The  safe- 
guarding of  ethical  interests  requires 
that  the  antithesis,  the  veritable  gulf 
between  righteousness  and  unrighteous- 
ness, should  be  vividly  apprehended. 

176 


SOME  GROUNDS  OF  CRITICISM 

Religion  is  made  farcical  where  no 
place  is  left  for  compunction  over 
affronts  to  the  laws  of  God.  It  is, 
of  course,  true  that  a  man  may  dwell 
morbidly  on  his  sins;  but  it  is  equally 
true  that  he  may  morbidly,  yea  ab- 
surdly, palliate  or  ignore  his  sins. 
And  New  Thought,  it  strikes  us,  vir- 
tually invites  to  this  soul-scathing 
indifference  and  frivolity.  When  it 
asserts  that  every  pin-point  of  expe- 
rience works  for  betterment,  that  all 
things  work  together  for  good  to  every- 
body, it  leaves  the  sinner  with  no  log- 
ical ground  for  repentance.  There  is 
no  reason  why  he  should  cherish  a 
regret  for  anything.  A  penitent  con- 
fession becomes  a  kind  of  burlesque 
performance.  On  the  New  Thought 
basis  the  publican  made  a  fool  of 
himself  when  he  prayed,  "God  be 
merciful  to  me  a  sinner !"  He  ought 
rather  to  have  said:  "O  Lord,  I  gladly 
recognize  that  I  am  a  divine  being. 
I  am  as  good  as  you  are.     I  am  God 

177 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

incarnate."  As  for  the  Pharisee,  he 
was  perfectly  right  in  so  far  as  he 
took  a  high  view  of  himself.  His 
mistake  was  that  he  did  not  clearly 
recognize  his  own  essential  divinity, 
and  the  equal  divinity  of  all  men. 
In  neither  the  publican  nor  the  Phar- 
isee could  a  broken  and  contrite  spirit 
properly  be  required,  and  Paul's  ex- 
hortation not  to  think  of  ourselves 
more  highly  than  we  ought  to  think 
belongs  to  an  old-fashioned  and  ob- 
solete regime.  As  divine  beings  we 
are  bound  in  deference  to  our  actual 
status  to  eschew  every  appearance  of 
self-abasement.  New  Thought  writers 
would  not,  of  course,  state  the  matter 
in  just  this  form,  but  many  of  their 
sayings  logically  prepare  for  this  out- 
come, and  it  is  noticeable  that  one 
might  traverse  their  books  from  be- 
ginning to  end  without  coming  across 
a  sentence  designed  to  commend  the 
obligation  to  repentance  or  confession. 
In  relation  to  its  healing  art  New 

178 


SOME  GROUNDS  OF  CRITICISM 

Thought  can  claim  the  merit  of  power- 
fully inculcating  the  efficacy  of  a 
serene  temper.  Much  that  is  urged 
on  this  score  can  cordially  be  recog- 
nized in  sane  medical  practice.  But 
no  respect  is  paid  to  normal  limits. 
Assertions  of  the  most  extravagant 
kind  abound.  The  exclusive  virtue 
assigned  to  thought  is  thoroughly  one- 
sided. As  H.  W.  Dresser  has  re- 
marked: "Life  is  in  truth  partly  an 
affair  of  thought,  but  not  chiefly  so. 
Man  is  in  part  what  thought  has 
made  him,  but  far  more  the  result 
of  will.  It  is,  indeed,  important  to 
make  right  affirmations,  but  of  far 
more  consequence  to  do  something 
than  to  'hold  the  thought/  "2  The 
psychology  of  New  Thought  at  this 
point  is  closely  akin  to  that  of  Chris- 
tian Science.  Both  the  one  and  the 
other  relatively  ignore  the  will  and 
lay  the  whole  stress  on  certain  lines 
of  thinking.     Evidently,  this  point  of 

1  A  Message  to  the  Well,  p.  77. 
179 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

view  involves  a  certain  affinity  with 
dogmatism,  as  placing  correct  thinking 
at  a  premium.  New  Thought  writers, 
it  is  true,  are  much  given  to  berating 
dogmas.  But  they  are  thinking  of 
the  dogmas  of  the  church  which  come 
into  conflict  with  their  own  views;  and 
the  curious  feature  in  the  case  is  that 
they  cannot  see  that  they  themselves 
are  among  ultra  dogmatists  in  the 
spirit  in  which  they  hold  and  champion 
their  cherished  views. 

The  assertion  of  the  limitless  power 
of  thought,  or,  in  other  terms,  of  the 
mind,  over  the  body  is  simply  an 
extravagant  dogma.  It  is  an  assump- 
tion for  which  no  suitable  proof  can 
be  afforded.  Whatever  competency 
may  belong  to  mind  in  another  range, 
minds  of  a  finite  order,  such  as  we 
possess,  have  no  complete  sovereignty 
over  the  body.  The  beauty  and  nor- 
mality of  the  saintly  soul  do  not  in 
the  actual  dispensation  guarantee  even 
an  average  state  of  health.    The  saint, 

180 


SOME  GROUNDS  OF  CRITICISM 

in  point  of  physical  condition,  may  be 
utterly  distanced  by  the  athletic  out- 
law who  makes  a  living  by  inhuman 
violence.  Doubtless  a  revolution  in 
mental  tone  may  be  attended  by  con- 
siderable physical  results.  The  very 
extravagance  of  the  New  Thought 
tenet  on  the  power  of  mind  over  body 
may  help  to  make  it  a  potent  medicine 
to  a  specially  conditioned  subject.  But 
a  virtue  which  pertains  to  a  fiction 
because  of  its  extravagance  cannot 
authenticate  the  fiction  or  turn  it  into 
a  truth.  A  wide  induction  is  certain 
to  show  up  the  fiction  as  outlawed  by 
a  vast  preponderance  of  facts. 

Even  should  the  assumption  of  New 
Thought  on  the  power  of  mind  to 
shape  bodily  conditions  be  substan- 
tially conceded,  a  problem  for  the 
healing  art  would  still  remain.  To  get 
the  ideal  result  the  mind  would  need 
to  be  normally  directed.  And  that 
is  an  end  most  difficult  to  achieve. 
The  body  reacts  upon  the  mind.    The 

181 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

environment  works  as  a  powerful  fac- 
tor. The  subconscious  mind,  as  New 
Thought  teaches,  may  be  a  great  store- 
house of  aberrant  tendencies.  With  so 
many  currents  impinging  upon  con- 
scious mind  and  tending  to  bias  think- 
ing, the  probability  of  imperfect  control 
is  simply  enormous.  The  patient  may 
be  told  that  his  one  care  should  be  to 
keep  the  mind  in  the  right  channel  of 
thought.  But  that  is  a  most  trying 
task,  and  the  serious  attempting  of  it 
may  awaken  anxieties.  It  is  possible 
to  get  anxious  over  the  fulfillment  of 
the  demand  not  to  be  in  the  least 
degree  anxious.  The  liability  to  this 
experience  has  been  illustrated  in  verse 
as  follows: 

I  joined  the  new  Don't  Worry  Club, 

And  now  I  hold  my  breath: 
I  am  so  scared  for  fear  I'll  worry 

That  I'm  worried  most  to  death. 

A  scheme  more  workable  in  the  great 
majority  of  cases  than  that  of  New 
Thought,  and  decidedly  more  salutary, 

182 


SOME  GROUNDS  OF  CRITICISM 

is  the  one  which  teaches  the  patient 
that  the  power  of  the  mind  over  the 
body,  though  appreciable,  is  not  un- 
limited or  unconditional,  that  physical 
good  is  subordinate  to  higher  ends, 
and  that  the  wise  thing  to  do  is  to 
cast  oneself  upon  eternal  Wisdom  and 
Love,  and  to  pray  for  ability  to  re- 
ceive with  calmness  and  sweetness  of 
temper  the  appointed  result. 

An  occasion  for  some  degree  of 
criticism  of  New  Thought  is  furnished 
by  the  prominence  which  it  gives  to 
the  therapeutic  value  of  virtuous  tem- 
pers. It  may  be  legitimate  enough  to 
place  considerable  emphasis  on  this 
point  of  view.  Virtuous  tempers, 
Christlike  dispositions,  undoubtedly 
are  favorable  to  the  health  of  their 
possessor.  But  they  have  a  value 
that  cannot  properly  be  measured  on 
a  therapeutic  scale.  They  are  the 
glory  of  the  human  spirit,  the  con- 
tent of  spiritual  excellence,  and  the 
obligation  to  cultivate  them  would  be 

183 


THEOSOPHY  AND  NEW  THOUGHT 

overwhelming  even  if  their  relation  to 
bodily  weal  were  perfectly  indifferent. 
We  are  glad  that  the  advocates  of 
New  Thought  so  strongly  inculcate 
them.  We  cannot,  however,  escape 
the  feeling  that  the  prominence  which 
is  given  to  their  connection  with  physi- 
cal health  tends  to  place  them  below 
the  plane  of  their  proper  dignity  and 
worth.  Things  that  are  central  may 
affect  the  superficies;  but,  if  they  are 
too  constantly  associated  with  the 
superficies,  their  centrality  ceases  to  be 
duly  rated. 

Reference  was  made  to  the  opti- 
mism characteristic  of  New  Thought. 
The  extreme  to  which  it  runs  makes 
it  just  as  dubious  in  tendency  as  the 
extravagant  pessimism  which  has  been 
taught  in  recent  times.  Moral  stren- 
uousness  certainly  cannot  be  promoted 
by  a  system  which  loudly  proclaims 
that  there  is  no  danger  ahead,  that 
all  experience  serves  as  a  stepping- 
stone  to  better  things,  and  that  every 

184 


SOME  GROUNDS  OF  CRITICISM 

man  is  absolutely  sure  of  unalloyed 
happiness.  A  soporific  of  this  kind 
is  absurdly  out  of  place.  The  somber 
side  of  life  and  destiny  may  indeed 
deserve  the  lesser  attention,  but  to 
ignore  it  is  to  substitute  roseate  mis- 
leading dreams  for  realities. 

While,  therefore,  it  is  true  that 
the  New  Thought  movement  has  given 
worthy  expression  to  not  a  few  val- 
uable truths,  we  are  none  the  less 
forced  to  conclude  that  it  has  enthroned 
dogmas  which  are  false  and  mischiev- 
ous in  tendency.  The  good  which 
New  Thought  inculcates  can  be  found 
in  our  common  Christianity.  There 
is  no  serious  occasion,  therefore,  to 
turn  to  its  literature  for  any  substan- 
tial furnishing. 


185 


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GAYLORD 

PRINTED  IN  U.S.A. 

BP575  -|54a  ,  New  thought, 
TheosophY  and  Ne*  Speer  Libra* 

PrmcetonTheolog.calSem.n^^ 


